Chapter 69: Building Construction (2)

Now, where should I put it?

The Storage House was a rectangle measuring 4 × 7 meters, taking up a total of 28 m2 of land. ℴℴ𝘮

My castle already occupied around 200 m2, sitting right in the middle of my 540 m2 territory. With the castle taking up such a large portion of the available space, squeezing in additional buildings would make the courtyard feel rather cramped.

So, I decided to solve the problem the easy way.

I spent 160 Points to activate the [Land Expansion] skill, increasing my territory’s area from 540 m2 to 700 m2.

As expected, the space enclosed by my castle walls expanded accordingly.

The courtyard grew wider, giving me plenty of room for future buildings. The distance between my gate and the forest remained exactly the same though, because it was just internal land expansion.

But then, the goblins had a rather different reaction to the sudden change.

The moment I activated the skill, all six of them froze in confusion as the surrounding landscape suddenly shifted. A second later, their confusion gave way to outright panic.

"AAAAA!" Gopuflammy shrieked, her face turning pale. She grabbed the blue-haired goblin girl beside her, shaking her. "Gopuberry, did you see that?! Did the gate just... just run away from us?!"

"Yes! I saw!" Gopuberry replied, looking equally bewildered.

Meanwhile, Gopushadow clutched his head and wailed.

"Waaaa! Big Boss! Why are we shrinking?!"

"Hey, relax!" I reassured them. "Nobody’s shrinking! I just used my magic to make the land bigger! Now we have more space to build houses and all sorts of other buildings!"

Hearing that, some of the goblins sighed in relief, while others went from terrified to excited in the blink of an eye.

"OOOOOOHHHH!"

The fear in their eyes vanished almost instantly.

But the strangest reaction came from Gopugiga, the biggest guy in the group. He had already dropped to his knees, clasping his hands together in prayer.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he raised his trembling hands toward the sky.

"A miracle! A miracle! Big Boss! Big Boss really is a god!"

His words seemed to trigger something in the others.

The goblins gasped as though they had suddenly realized the truth, then promptly threw themselves to the ground and prostrated themselves before me.

"Aaaah! It really was a miracle!"

"Yes! I knew it! Big Boss is a god! He was just hiding his true power from us!"

Meanwhile...

Oh, come on!

Again with the god thing?!

Haha...

Well, to be fair, the System’s space-warping abilities really were pretty godlike. I couldn’t exactly blame the goblins for jumping to that conclusion...

Anyhow, now that I had more land to work with, my courtyard no longer felt cramped. I could finally start planning my little territory properly.

I positioned the Storage House near the western wall, leaving enough room around it for easy access and future expansion.

Somehow, as soon as I settled on the location, I found myself already planning to build another one on the eastern side to match it.

Because if there was one thing I couldn’t tolerate, it was... an asymmetrical layout!

Yeah!

Everything had to be SYMMETRICAL!

Just as I settled on the perfect spot, a System prompt appeared before me.

[Ding!]

[Are you sure you want to construct Wooden Storage House Lv. 1 at this location?]

[Warning: Relocation is possible after construction, but will cost 5 Points per square meter of the building.]

Well, that was good to know.

Since the Storage House occupied 28 m2, relocating it would cost me a total of 140 Points.

Yikes. That’s pretty expensive.

At least, it was expensive by my current standards. Once I started constructing larger buildings that required far more valuable materials, paying a few hundred Points to relocate one might not seem like such a big deal anymore.

Maybe I would want to move this Storage house someday.

But for now, this was its perfect spot.

With that in mind, I selected [Confirm].

[Ding!]

[Initiating Construction Process: Wooden Storage House]

[Please select your preferred System Assist Mode!]

Three options appeared before me.

[Fully System-Assisted Mode]

[Partially System-Assisted Mode]

And finally...

[Fuck It, I’ll Do It Myself Mode]

*****

Haha... just kidding. The last option was actually called [Freedom Mode].

I had already read through the descriptions of all three modes, and their functions were pretty straightforward and self-explanatory.

First, there was Fully System-Assisted Mode.

This one was simple. All I had to do was dump the required materials, such as wood, stone, and iron, at the construction site, and the System would handle everything else. It would process the raw materials and somehow transform them into a completed building automatically.

Of course, such convenience came at a significantly higher cost than the other modes.

On top of that, I wouldn’t be able to customize the building to my liking. Everything would follow the System’s default blueprint, leaving me with little room to make any changes.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was Freedom Mode, otherwise known as the "Fuck It, I’ll Do It Myself" Mode.

Basically, the System would provide me with the blueprint and leave the rest to us. We’d have to handle everything ourselves, from processing the raw materials to cutting the planks, laying the bricks, and assembling the entire structure.

But there was one major problem.

My citizens were goblins.

They had little to no knowledge of construction, let alone the skills needed to process raw materials and build proper houses. Without the System’s assistance, there was no way they could handle the entire process on their own.

Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t help with the tasks they were capable of.

And that was where [Partially System-Assisted Mode] came in.

Under this mode, the System would provide the blueprint, process the raw materials, and guide my citizens through the construction process, instructing them on what to do at each step.

In other words, it was basically an on-the-job training program for my newbie construction workers.

And who knew?

There’s a chance they might be able to learn actual construction related skills from this?

With that in mind, I selected [Partially System-Assisted Mode].

[Ding!]

[Partially System-Assisted Construction Mode Activated.]

[Step 1: Please load the required materials for the Wooden Storage House into the designated construction area.]