Expansion

This time, Theo wasn't so lucky, he didn't find new subordinates or even another trapped player. But his map now showed some interesting things, like a lake that he discovered when he came here, although this lake was completely polluted, he thought that with Alika's magic it might be possible to recover it. Not only that, but he also marked a location that he would consider conquering in the future, it was a mine from which he could obtain stones and, if he was lucky, even some iron ores.

The village was completely defeated within minutes, and after collecting all 200 bodies, he got another 120 energy stones and was now heading back to his camp to check on something else he forgot this morning. He ended up neglecting the new Territory section of his menu because it appeared last night when he was completely tired and only thought about sleeping.

When they arrived, he quickly went to his house and laid down for a while to rest from having walked there and back. He then opened his status to see the description of the new skill he gained when he finished his class quest. With this, he also realized that he had leveled up, but he would not allocate his points now and would wait for the next level which at the moment was not far away.

The skill description was as follows.

[Sense of the Earth]

[Allows the user to sense other people within a 50 meter radius, with him being the center. Anyone with evil intentions towards the user will be shown as a red dot on their sense.]

It was basically a complement to the minimap, as it would show him a screen with red and green dots and a white dot in the center. But as basic as this was, it would be perfect for avoiding ambushes and assassinations of other players.

After testing it and seeing how it worked, he realized it was simple but effective and even marked Amethyst, a ghost. With that, he proceeded to check the Territory section, here he discovered that he could give his camp a name as well as expand it with some basic resources in large quantities, obviously.

But that didn't scare him, as he could also improve the buildings and create new ones in that section without even needing to be there. What was even better was that he could create a resource storehouse that any of his subordinates would have access to, and he could store items in it even from a distance.

So, even if he gained a lot of resources in a battle, he could simply store them in the warehouse and not have to worry about carrying them or making many trips. He then quickly checked the resources needed to build the warehouse and was only missing a few stones, which he got by selling the wood from the trees collected in the last few minutes.

With the deposit ready, the next thing to do was to expand his territory so that he could later build houses for his subordinates. But to his surprise, he needed 10 energy stones for the first expansion, in addition to wood and stone. Five hundred units of each would be a huge expansion for the number of resources he required, but Theo was determined to be able to do this, and he would have his expansion by tomorrow night.

Despite having told his subordinates that today they would have their homes, he explained to them that with the expansion he could better organize the houses and the free space in the camp. Theo also saw many structures that he could build later, such as a carpentry shop, a building specifically for cutting and working with wood. A masonry that would deal with rough stones, transforming them into blocks of different sizes, as well as dealing with clay, from the description he could see.

Theo retired to his house to sleep after ordering the skeletons to rest after every hour of work, but to remain working until they reached the 800 log mark.

When dawn came, Theo performed his ritual and got a new skeleton warrior, and a new zombie, like everyone else. And after that, he focused on getting the stones, even sending an Amethyst and his new skeleton to the abandoned mine to see if they could get some stones from there. He made a stone pickaxe in the crafting section and gave it to the skeleton, giving him a basic lesson on how to use the tool, just like he did with an ax for Bones who then taught the others.

Before noon, the skeleton, and Amethyst returned, they got some stones, but there were also spider monsters in the mine caves, so they decided to go back and report. He would have to send Alika with them later again to use her fire magic against the spiders. If they were like the ones in his world, the cave could be full of webs that would prevent their skeletons from moving in seconds.

     As he had planned in the late afternoon, he had obtained both wood and stones to carry out the expansion and create two more small houses that he had promised to his subordinates. Starting with the expansion, when he confirmed the use of resources, the ground shook and his wall, previously 2 meters high, became 3 meters high in seconds, and that wasn't the only thing that happened. But he also expanded by advancing 50 meters to each side, giving his camp a total area of 3,025 m².

     Now that Theo had a lot of space to plan his future city, he already had some plans, such as placing all the houses on the right side and structures like the carpentry and masonry on the left side. Keeping the noise of the tireless skeleton workers away from those who needed to rest.

     With this in mind, he had already started moving to the location to create the first houses, but remembered that he no longer needed to be there in person. He opened the section of the territory and decided to place the first house, what he saw next was his entire territory seen from above with a grid, making it gridded. He also visualized the design of the house and knew that it would occupy one square at the moment, but he knew that it would grow when it was updated. So he placed it in a certain location close to the wall, but did not glue it to it.

     The next house he would place three squares away to have a passage between them, in addition to the extra space for expansion of the first house. So, in a few seconds, the houses were ready to be inhabited, Theo had already given everyone some skins to use as beds while he was unable to make the beds.