The walls

"I have really no idea!" I said a little frustrated.

Mia gave me a smile. "Well, we will see!"

We deactivated the Golden Crown.

Instead of disappearing, a small gold-white gem formed on our foreheads, no bigger than our fingertips.

I nodded and looked out the window.

The rain fell incessantly.

Mia asked me, "Can we spend the day together again?"

Her question surprised me but I just smiled and replied, "Of course! I'll go light the fireplace."

"Thank you," she murmured.

We entered a sort of living room and settled on a sofa. The fire crackled in the fireplace, and Mia rested her head against me.

I opened my status system. Mia said softly, "I miss my parents and friends!"

I looked at her.

"Also, I feel so alone in this huge castle when you're not around..." she added.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I miss the village a little too."

She looked at me with teary eyes.

"Don't cry," I said, stroking her head. I put my arm around her. "Not much longer, and we'll bring them here."

"Hmm," she agreed. To distract herself, she said firmly, "Let me watch to!"

I agreed and called out, "Status system!"

Immediately, I accessed the skill tree and was thrilled.

As the assistant had mentioned, three new main branches had been added: Technology, Economy, and Administration.

I unlocked the first level for each branch and focused on the rest.

I noticed that by leveling up the castle, I had gained 50 SP, 10 per level.

With levels 1, 3, and 5, expansions in the tree were added. The first two cost only 10 SP each, but the third one unlocked at level 5, cost 40!

"Interesting," I murmured, shocked by the price. But I immediately unlocked everything even though that required a significant SP amount.

"[High-Level Farming]," I read a loud.

As I saw, only Administration, population and Infrastructure had a different.

The others had the same first name, for example High Level Military. And they could supposedly compete against half god-level construction.

Because they weren't just masterpieces of a human anymore no, they were masterpieces of 'nearly transcended humans'.

(A/N: It is the rank before you become half god)

In the Administration category, there was the Castle Level 5 skill [Very Effective Administration], and in Infrastructure, [The Best Infrastructure]. And population?

The name was for each level the same, just [Population] and with each level you could 'invite' more people and create each month now someone a little stronger than before.

But it wasn't much different from before, so I turned my attention back to [The Best Infrastructure].

This immediately piqued my interest. The best is, after all, the best, and I wondered if there would be any further expansion.

First, I examined the new Administration point. There, I could create human robots to handle all the paperwork. Additionally, there was a kind of central crystal that issued ID cards specifically for each citizen and, to some extent, ensured they adhered to the entered laws.

That would be very helpful.

However, since I didn't need robots at the moment, I shifted my focus and opened the Infrastructure section.

A lot had changed there. There were no more options, only an overview of the entire kingdom.

I could input my plans and any additional features that might come in the future. I could mark individual areas and assign them specific functions, while also receiving tips and ideas.

Afterward, it calculated the best infrastructure, taking into account trade, economy, technology, and so on, and generated a blueprint.

I could divide this blueprint into various steps, which could be implemented directly with extreme resource expenditure.

"Very interesting," I said aloud, unable to suppress a grin.

"Hmhm," I heard Mia, who seemed to be dozing off a bit.

I smiled at her briefly and now opened each sub-point one by one to see what was new.

I decided to spend the next few days with Mia to farm and, in the meantime, examine the possible constructions so that I already had a good idea of what I wanted for the infrastructure.

...

"Is it already full?" Mia asked.

I nodded thoughtfully and looked at the huge resource mountain in front of the castle. We had to outsource many normal resources to make space for special things.

Then I opened the resource overview.

————

Resources: (converted to...)

Food: [0]

Gold: [0]

Stone: [738,212,309] (tons)

Wood: [63,781] (total length in km)

Iron: [0] (tons)

Special: [3x space backpack, 2x mana stone from a space dragon, demigod dragon head, 3 heads of Cerberus...]

Fill level: 100%

———

Satisfied, I nodded and brought out the first part of the blueprint.

"That should be enough," I said to Mia, who stood beside me on the balcony.

She nodded excitedly and looked expectantly over the landscape.

The plan was to build the first two walls.

The first one, with the castle as the center, was 500 km away. This meant that the first wall, surrounding the future capital, stood three hundred kilometers from the lakeshore.

The second wall enclosed the island and was about 50 km from the island shore, equivalent to 100 km from the lakeshore.

Of course, these were not just any walls; they were special walls designed to protect against dangers. Therefore, special materials were mainly used to build them.

For example, several tons of mithril and adamantite were used.

As a result, they gained high resistance, mana efficiency, and could form a kind of dome to also provide defense against aerial attacks.

What I noticed about the castle was that stone seemed to be a kind of universal currency, as no matter which stones were stored and used, everything ended up being the same. Very convenient!

"Assistant," I said, "I want to use the blueprint for both walls."

[Confirmed]

[Materials will be used]

[Please wait]

[10,000,000 tons of mithril, adamantite, and stone will be used]

[Successful]

[...]

[Successful!]

[The walls are now in place!]

[Please name each wall]

Throughout the assistant's messages, the earth seemed to tremble. We looked eagerly toward the horizon, and after the tenth blink, a wall rose in the lake, reaching a thousand meters into the sky.

"Absolutely insane!" Mia exclaimed, looking excitedly at the white wall. She jumped a little and couldn't hold still.

"Names?" I mumbled.

[Yes, if you give names to the walls, you can open a brief overview by mentioning the name plus "Status" and assess their abilities.]

"All right," I said, "I'll call the wall around the lake 'Lake Wall' and the second wall 'City Wall.'"

[Successful]

Since I didn't feel like rereading the overviews, as there were already too many, I asked the assistant which ones were available.

[Both walls can become transparent, self-repair, form a mana cap, become stronger over time, and reflect damage by 90%. For this, they efficiently draw mana from the earth and the atmosphere.]

I nodded approvingly at my choice and was satisfied to see it again.

"Leo! The wall is way too high! We won't be able to see into the distance anymore!"

I looked down at Mia and smiled at her. Her white dress from home fluttered in the wind, and her expectant gaze made me wild.

I moved closer, put my arms around her hips, lifted her up, placed her on the balcony railing, and let my hand wander up her thigh.

Mia didn't stop me but said, "Only when the Lake Wall is transparent. You said it could do it!"

I smiled at her, told the assistant to make the Lake Wall transparent, and

 now pointed with the other hand at the disappearing wall.

"Are you satisfied?" I asked her.

"Only halfway," she smiled and took my hand, leading it into the warmth herself.