Building to begin shortly.
Please finalize the user’s desires for the structure.
With that prompt from the System, a sort of overlay filled his vision. It was best compared to many games with building mechanics, where one could see a transparent preview of what was being built before actually committing to it. Something similar happened now, as Jordan also got several screens popping in to add more detail to the process.
Hmm, okay. But what if I want to put it by the river before deciding anything else? Since that'd at least give me direct access to its running water. System, can you go ahead and move it over there? However, he felt a negative response from the System. The building would be limited only to the space that was considered part of his new Kingdom's territory, and said territory had been established from the moment he picked up the crown. Which was to say that it being found in this clearing had already been a predetermined placement of his Kingdom and the building that would now be constructed.
Speaking of which, the default structure was basically just a cube. It filled almost the entirety of the available space in the clearing. But aside from just the visual reference, the System also provided more exact specs about its size through one of the screens.
Dimensions:
Length: 25 Meters
Width: 25 Meters
Height: 25 Meters
Jordan couldn’t help but whistle a bit with appreciation. It seemed that even the almighty System could recognize that Metric was objectively the better… well, system! And while he was fine with working in Metric and had the conversion between it and Imperial long since ingrained into his mind due to the nature of his studies, he couldn’t help but be biased. Jordan was an eagle-riding, burger-eating, grease-blooded American, after all. So, even though his mind knew which measurement system was objectively better, his heart still urged him to auto-convert it in his head anyway. To show the System that he would not be forced into-
Dimensions:
Length: 82.021 Feet
Width: 82.021 Feet
Height: 82.021 Feet
Seeing the updated text, Jordan wondered if the System was actually a conscious entity with its own personality. Because while he could appreciate the attention to detail in the exact conversion, something about it just felt rather sassy. Who knew, it could just as easily be him assigning intent where there actually wasn’t any.
But man, what the Hell is up with that square footage? Just over 6700 square feet? I’d have been fine with something equivalent to a tiny cottage. But at that size, this thing is a fucking mansion! And that’s just the basic length and width I’m thinking about; if you divide that height into stories by adding floors, that’s just even more insane! Jordan thought to himself.
He rubbed his hands together as he took it in. Partially just a motion he did out of excitement, but very largely due to the fact that he was starting to get cold. It’d been night for a while now, and the cool air was beginning to feel fairly chilly.
Hopefully the new building came pre-equipped with heating too. However, as Jordan then glanced around the other screens, those hopes were pretty quickly dashed. Because as far as he could tell, it would be rather lacking in the department of anything coming installed.
The next step was to determine two things that seemed to be tied together. First the material that the building would be constructed from, and then that would change the thickness of its borders.
Materials:
Multiversal Standard Concrete
Multiversal Standard A5 Steel
Titanium
Aluminum
The options present were fascinating in themselves. He imagined that it would have been easy for the System to just throw something like concrete and decide the exact composition on its own. But like the description of his Engineer’s Uniform, it’d pointedly went with something that was apparently a standard across the multiverse.
Now, there was a chicken or the egg question in there, however. Because was something the standard because it’d been decided between universes and then accepted by the System? Or was it the standard because the System had already called it such to other universes, like in this instance?
But alright, let’s look at what we know. Which is… not much, to be honest. Pretty sure that the ideal type of material for a building to be made of is a civil engineering question, likely better if they also got a a degree in metallurgy or something. If the question is which one would I want if someone started using their Skills to break through the walls, then… titanium? All I’m sure about is that titanium has a reputation for getting a good back out of your buck, in terms of how strong it is for its weight. Hmm. Jordan considered the question for a little bit, but then decided to look at it from another way.
If these options were in a vacuum, then it’d be a hard choice where he would likely end up just making a basically random guess. But when it came to making a comparison, the System had provided one form of measurement. The thickness of each material.
He could only see two good reasons why they would vary, at least off the top of his head. The first was that the System wanted to keep the total mass of the building around or below a certain level. The second was that it because the building would be the first and main base of his Kingdom, it may want to keep a certain amount of balance in terms of durability.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It would be kind of wild if someone got a base made of sticks and straw, and another got a nigh impenetrable fortress of metal. Though at the same time, this was the same System that had previously considered Time Mage and regular Mage to be equal Classes to start with. Or compare the other options to his own Class, and the undeniably awesome Skill of summoning a long-range drone.
Right, let’s try this. Should as good of a test as any to see what’s going on here, Jordan thought to himself. It’d only taken him a few seconds of thinking to realize how he could find out.
With just a thought, he had the System reduce the base’s dimensions by half. Something which actually added an additional, interesting result. Because as the blue outline of the building immediately shrank down, there was still a second outline bordered with red left in its place. Glancing through the list of screens to double-check, he quickly confirmed what the new outline was.
Kingdom Territory:
Length: 82.021 Feet
Width: 82.021 Feet
Height: 82.021 Feet
Jordan also found out that this too was something he could decrease. But… why would he? Like the option was nice in terms of just having the freedom to do, but he’d be surprised if anyone did it. Maybe it was just a feature for giving up territory claims that another Kingdom might want. So not relevant now, but potentially later. In terms of expanding it, however, Jordan quickly found that this starting territory was already at the max.
In any case, the results of the test were promising. Even after shrinking down the size of building, the thickness values did not change. He could lower it all the way down to being small enough to easily hold with one hand, and yet there was still no effect on the walls’ thickness.
So since that seemed to be predetermined, Jordan made the decision simple for himself. Just go with the option that would provide the thickest walls. That felt like the wisest decision in terms of overall defensive capability. In which case, the answer was concrete. With that now settled, he moved on to other screens and adjustments.
The remaining details of the base were just that, details. He did adjust the overall shape to be less of a basic cube and instead more rectangular like a typical concrete building. This did result in some of the maximum territory not being utilized, but it felt fine to leave some out. In terms of finding out if territory meant anything in terms of actual function that could be applied outside of just the building’s placement, having some outside could be helpful.
Aside from that, Jordan did discover that he could do some interior adjusting as well. Specifically in the form of actually being able to add multiple floors himself. However, there were limitations to this. He was able to keep into the details of ensuring that some part of each upper floor was cut-out to make space for either stairs or ladders. What he could do was manually either of himself. Jordan even tried to finagle it into making something like a rock climbing wall as a type of ladder. But for the walls themselves, that level of detailing didn’t seem to be possible.
So yeah, for now he just went with smaller holes for ladders. Since it felt like that would be easier to make himself later than stairs that he would trust to remain stable and easy to use.
Several years ago, Jordan had an uncle who’d advised him to look into civil engineering instead, after he’d expressed an interest in computer engineering during high school. His uncle had ended up passing away a few years ago, but if there was an afterlife, Jordan was certain he was laughing at him from down there. And yes, down was definitely the direction of afterlife where he would have gone.
Finally, it was done. Jordan gave all the screens a final once over to make sure that there was nothing left he wanted to change at the last second. After finding no such desirable changes to make, he breathed a sigh of relief.
It’s been… a long, long fucking day. Don’t even know if I’ll actually be able to sleep once I start trying. Or if I can, if it’ll even be restful and nightmare-free. Jordan felt a tingle run up his spine as he reflexively pictured the faces of those who had died. Despite an attempt to make some peace with what had happened by making his promise to the deceased, the final expressions of their dead faces would likely remain stuck in his memory for as long as he lived.
His head turned upward as he looked up at the sky. Even all the way up to the top, the clearing remained free from any coverage by the forest’s canopy. It was now since entering the giant forest that he actually had a chance to see the night sky of this world.
There was no moon, at least not one that he’d been able to see so far. But the sky was practically crammed with stars. Living in urban areas his whole life, Jordan had never personally gone stargazing in an area away from any light pollution. But the sight before him put even the most wondrous pictures and videos of Earth’s starry nights to shame. In many spots, the sheer density of stars almost made it seem like there wasn’t any space between them. At first glance, it often gave the initial appearance of actually being merged together into massive yet still clearly distant stars.
Because of them, it was in this clearing that Jordan was actually able to see reasonably well without any assistance. Perhaps it was thanks to this that he was able to spot what he saw next. For when Jordan looked down from the sky, his gaze quickly caught movement between the trees almost opposite from him.
The figure seemed to be still well over a hundred feet away from the clearing. Yet, just as Jordan had blinked with surprise, a deep and uncomfortable sensation washed over him. When someone said that they could feel when they were being watched, it was often assumed that they were being paranoid or at least hyperbolic. But that was the only real way to describe this feeling. Jordan just knew that someone had looked at him with the intent to observe him.
Beyond the initial shock, the more reasonable part of his brain knew what happened. Someone had just used Appraise on him, and this must have been what Audrey felt like when he had tried it on her. At this point, Jordan was only surprised about how lacking her reaction had been to what was a most creepy and unwelcome feeling.
Yet knowing exactly who’d it been from, Jordan cast his own Appraise on the incoming figure. Who quickly stopped in place just as the screen then popped before him.
Name: Joey Moore
Species: Human (Earth)
Guild: N/A
Class: Rogue
Subclass: N/A
Level: 2
Grade: E
Well… shit, Jordan thought to himself. And right before he’d affirmed to the System that his choices for the building had been finalized and ready for construction. Talk about bad timing.
Now the question remained: would that fact prove to be a positive or a negative?