As Jordan basked in the feeling, it didn’t take long for him to sense that everything in the area belonging to him was a bit of a stretch. It was more like every non-living thing, which obviously didn’t include the giant trees of the forest itself or any creatures that called this part of the forest home. It did, however, seem to extend to the layer of dry leaves which covered of ground and all the dead sticks randomly strewn about.

However, there wasn’t that much else to it. To feel like this small corner of the corner revolved around him was a nice feeling, but not something he currently seemed able to do anything with. Perhaps if another Initial Merger were to enter his territory, he’d now be able to know? Or maybe there was more to it, but he still needed to actually get back to his base to unlock it. With no other way to find out, Jordan continued to use Overcharge to have his drone get him back there all the sooner.

When he soon arrived back at his base, Jordan quickly noticed something. His base was different; as in the concrete building itself had changed. From afar, it didn’t look that different. But as he pulled into the clearing, he could see that the material of the building had undergone a moderately subtle transformation. The kind that someone might not think much of, unless they were already familiar with how it’d looked before, like himself.

The concrete had changed in two ways. The first was color, which could now be described as a few shades darker than its previously standard grey. Then, the second was texture. When looking at it closely, one would have seen that the concrete used to have a relatively rough surface. This would have been in the same way someone typically imagined a concrete sidewalk, for example. Now, however, its surface had been smoothed. To the point that when Jordan got off his drone and rubbed his hand against it, it almost felt slick against his glove.

When Jordan then opened the door, a curious sight made him raise a brow. It was yet another door. One made from more smoothed concrete, and something that had definitely not been there when he left. This new door had no handle or any immediately discernable way to actually open it. But just as Jordan asked himself how he was meant to do so, it immediately swung inward.

Okay then? Do you have any of those Notes you might have forgotten to send over earlier, System? Since unless someone was nice enough to come over and surprise me with a free renovation, this must be obviously part of increasing my Kingdom’s Rank. But it would be nice if you have screens or just inherent knowledge you’d like to send me, Jordan thought to himself before he then stepped inside. As soon as he passed by the doorway, the door then automatically closed behind him.

Within his base, a couple of things were pretty immediately noticeable. The first, surprisingly enough, was the air. Or rather, the air quality. When Jordan breathed it in, he couldn’t help but feel that it was… enhanced. He wasn’t sure how else to describe it.

To him at least, it was more than just clean, but actually downright refreshing to inhale into his lungs. Just from the first few deep breaths, he already felt much more awake and energized than he did just several seconds ago. Any built-up tiredness that would have begun tempting him to start thinking about sleeping in a couple of hours was gone, just like that.

Jordan had a very distinct feeling that this sensation wasn’t just in his head. Was that maybe even why the System had given him a free door with it? To keep this extra good air trapped inside? It was either that, or that the automatic door just acted as an improvement to the base’s inherent security.

When he glanced back, Jordan noted the lack of gaps to indicate the doorway itself. Had he not known otherwise, he might have thought there wasn’t even a door at all, but that it was all just a solid wall. Something that definitely felt like an intentionally air-tight seal. From the lack of windows in the base, the only other opening would be the roof access. At the very least, he would make a point to also check that out before he left.

As for the rest of the interior, the changed concrete had also been universally applied. Jordan still wasn’t sure what that actually meant, practically speaking. But surely it had to be an upgrade of some kind, or else what would be the point? The first idea that came to mind would be in regard to the material’s toughness. His base basically could be considered a fortress, at the end of the day. So with a perfectly tight door, it’d make sense that an upgrade would make it even harder for someone attacking to actually break their way in or just generally try to destroy the whole building.

In terms of the actual design of the building and its furniture, that was almost the same as before. Almost, became there was one major exception to that. While the Industrial Transmuter by the back wall still appeared to be unchanged, that wasn’t true for the wooden door that’d been off to its side. First of all, it was now also made from the concrete. But more importantly, it was faintly glowing with a light that also seemed to be beckoning him to come closer.

Now, while the jury was still out on whether Jordan was generally a fool, he at least wasn’t a total idiot. Even without a direct prompt from the System, he knew a “hey, you should check out this thing!” indicator when he saw it. It would be the first time from the System for such a thing. But considering all the other game-like it’d used to thoroughly change his reality, it wasn’t that surprising. And with how he’d already been curious about what the door would unlock upon his Kingdom reaching Rank 2, he naturally went over to it with quick steps.

As he approached, his mind raced with anticipation. Would it be an expansion for his base? Doors obviously tended to lead into rooms, so that idea did make sense. But one never knew. The System could always choose to surprise him instead with something he might never have guessed.

When Jordan then placed a hand on the glowing door, a pop-up appeared. And to his delight, the text screen was obviously different from before when it’d told him to come back when he met the requirement. Yet when he actually began to read the text just a second later, however, his delighted expression turned into one of surprise.

New Kingdom Boons Available!

Pick from one of the following:

Boon: Industrial Miner

Description: This Boon shall provide a stationary machine within the user’s Kingdom. This Industrial Miner will be able to detect and then extract any material of the user's choosing within the Kingdom’s territory. As a High Lord, the Boon also includes an additional reward in the form of expanding the depth of the Kingdom’s territory by a high degree.

Boon: Industrial Communicator

Description: This Boon shall provide a stationary machine within the user’s Kingdom. This Industrial Communicator will be able to detect and then contact any other Kingdoms within its range. As a High Lord, the Boon also includes an additional reward in the form of expanding the Communicator’s range in correlation with any increases to the size of the Kingdom’s territory.

Boon: Industrial Surveyor

Description: This Boon shall provide a stationary machine within the user’s Kingdom. This Industrial Surveyor will be able to scan and then map out the area within the Kingdom’s territory. As a High Lord, the Boon also includes an additional reward in the form of improving upon the Surveyor’s base functions, and allows it to also mark points of interest based on the user’s chosen parameters.

The first option had been Jordan’s favorite from the start. A Miner for materials to pair with his Transmuter. What could possibly be more appealing than that? He’d been initially confident that the answer was nothing, but then he just had to read the second choice and started having doubts. Now with eyes narrowed with uncertainty, he also read through the last Boon presented.

Okay, Jordan, process of elimination. While the Surveyor does sound good, it’s not as necessary. That marking points of interest would be useful for finding things like the portal, since who knows what else is just out there and waiting to be found. But that’s a bit more long-term, anyway. Since even with the upgrade to my Kingdom’s territory, it wouldn’t even cover far enough of an area to reach the portal right now. Now, as for the first two… man.

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Getting his thoughts in order, Jordan believed it came down to two main things. Did he want to potentially get materials to aid in his own use of the Transmuter, or to potentially contact friendly Kingdoms to aid in the further recruitment of others to his own banner? For both, ‘potentially’ was most certainly the keyword that had to be highlighted.

The only thing he knew for sure was the territory of his Kingdom. Jordan currently had a very distinct sense that its range of one mile in each direction also applied vertically. Now when the text said that the depth of that would be expanded to reach even further underground, he wasn’t sure what a high degree meant in this context. Would that be doubling to two miles, or perhaps even more? He believed that he would only get the exact number after he finalized his choice and the machine itself was built.

Yet then there was the question. Even within that total range, whatever it may be, would there even be anything for it to extract? Jordan already had a supply of iron powder now, and it should be noted that the iron itself definitely wasn’t just your standard variety stuff. The constant exposure to the wind and water of the beach should have a least made the top layer rusty as Hell, but that hadn’t been the case. So, at least the iron powder itself was definitely a bit special, for one reason or another.

But would there be more iron or the metals underground? Maybe. It would be kind of screwed up if the System offered him the Miner, only for it to reveal that there would be nothing worth mining in its current range. So one would at least hope the System would be kind enough to at least make it worth the use of a precious Boon. Yet at the same time, nothing was guaranteed.

In that same vein, however, was the argument regarding the Communicator. Once again, the exact range would likely only be known after it was built. Yet while the existence of underground minerals could easily be predetermined by the System, he wasn’t sure if the same could be said about other Kingdoms. Maybe the System would make the range super, super far to allow him to contact even far-away Kingdoms. But it was just as likely that either nobody was around, or it was just another Kingdom of those fanatical Crabs.

But the potential was in the ability to maybe contact his friends and family. There still weren’t that many Kingdoms in the world, at least not when compared the much, much higher number of Guilds. Yet what if he contacted a Kingdom with fellow Humans, and then they knew of everyone else in their own area past the Communicator’s range? And then if they were willing to find out, the word could be spread around.

Jordan knew that the math wasn’t exactly in his favor. If he assumed this planet was the size of Earth, then there being less than a hundred million Humans to reach Level 2 wasn’t a good sign. Especially if their groups were indeed spread out across the whole planet. However, there was another factor to consider in that equation.

While they were open, did the portals count as something the Communicator could go through? In the same way that the “signal” for his land drones could remain established, and still counted being on the other side from him as within their range.

If that was the case, then the practical application of the Communicator would skyrocket in value. Though once again, Jordan could only speculate for now, and wouldn’t be able to find out for sure until it would already be far too late for him to change his mind.

However, he felt that there wasn’t any sort of time limit for the decision in front of him. He could take care of it now, but there wouldn’t be a penalty for doing so later. Something that would allow him more time to think about, yes, but that wasn’t actually the main reason why he’d do so. It was because, at least sometimes during key moments of self-awareness, Jordan knew himself far too well.

If what he assumed to be a new room for the second Boon were quickly built, then he’d naturally want to check it out. Then Jordan would want to actually give the Boon a test run to see how it actually worked, of course. Depending on the results, he may then be tempted just to try one more thing. And then next thing he knew, he’d wasted hours in a spiral of distraction where he only intensely focused on the most interesting thing immediately in front of him.

Case in point, he’d already gotten distracted by the general changes to his Kingdom, and was now still looking at the door.

Yet that’d be no good for someone who was still on a deadline. He’d come here with a relatively simple task in mind. Use the Transmuter to make a few more sets of winter-ready clothing, and then immediately leave to pick up those who were still waiting for him.

Jordan started to look down at his wrist, but then quickly remembered that his watch was still broken. Something that could be fixed now that he was back home. But then he’d have to reset the time, which would just be a guess at this point. Something that he could do now anyway, to be fair. But while he would still take a few seconds to fix it, he decided that accurately adjusting it would be a thing for morning Jordan to deal with.

He definitely still had at least a few hours until the portal closed on this side. If that were to happen though, it’d mean being forced to wait through the whole of the next day. Yet even if his distraction didn’t get that bad, it’d still be a delay in what he had promised wouldn’t take too long. Even if nothing bad were likely to happen during that period, it’d just be kind of rude for him to establish himself as a High Lord who couldn’t even keep his word for something so basic.

Speaking of people promising things; however, Jordan did take a moment to then check on something. The pencil and paper from the shared Guild inventory were still there. Which he didn’t even need to pull them out to know, as it seemed like an inherent function of being the Guild leader was knowing everything that got put in there.

However, it wasn’t something that was so automatic as for him to instant know if an item was put in or taken out. It was more like just focusing on it for the System to then give him an updated understanding of what the pocket space currently held. But in this case, that didn’t really make a difference. Since if one of the others had replied and then put the pen and paper back, he didn’t have a way to tell. All he knew about the paper was what it actually was, but not the contents written upon it.

When Jordan took out the paper, he was pleasantly surprised to see that a response to his earlier had already been written down. One that was a pretty simple and straightforward answer. No, none of them had received Experience Points from the dead Crab.

Which was in spite of him knowing for a fact, because they’d told him earlier, that two of the survivors had also attacked it. Something that definitely seemed to lean toward the theory of “winning blow takes all,” which would mean that kill stealing was on the table as a thing. So since he didn’t intend to do such a thing to Haje, sending drones to aid his hunt of the Elemental Lord wouldn’t have directly rewarded Jordan anyway.

In any case, he went ahead and walked away from the door and over to in front of the Transmuter instead. When Jordan then took out some extra clothing from his pocket space to start making the sets of winter gear, a sudden sensation brushed his mind upon his hand touching the machine. At that moment, the System gave him an update on how the Transmuter now worked. After the Rank increase to his Kingdom, its functionality had also been upgraded in a very key way.

For a still unknown cost to its Charge, he could adjust the parameters of the slots. Right now it was much longer than it was tall, but if Jordan so chose, he could change that now. As long as the result remained equal to or less than the original volume, he had full freedom to make the slots any shape he so pleased. He already sensed that the default function was that it’d apply to both slots, but he could also adjust them independently if he wanted.

Later, Jordan, later. It’ll still be here when you back. Just do what you came here to do, and then walk right back out that doorway. Once you’re back, you’ll have all the time in the world to test this upgrade out, Jordan internally chided himself, already feeling the temptation of distraction once more.

Not allowing anything else to waste more time, for now, Jordan went ahead and made the other clothes. A passing thought did enter his mind if the Cryomancer actually needed a set, since while she’d just been some robes with a hood, one would assume from her Class that it already came with pre-build cold resistance.

On the one hand, she hadn't brought it up when he’d declared his intentions. But on the other hand, she did seem a bit out of it in a way that was more than the others. Even while speaking directly to him, there’d been a look in her eyes that made him feel like a part of her mind was somewhere else.

Just in case, Jordan decided to make her a set too, anyway. If it turned out that it wasn’t needed, then he could just recycle the material after coming back. So with that decided, he quickly made all the sets with the hope he’d gotten the sizing close enough for each person without actually knowing their measurements.

Once that was done, Jordan did remember to check out the roof access as the last thing to do. Which did allow him to confirm that it’d also gotten a concrete hatch installed. Which meant the piece of wood he’d added was probably just right above it, fully redundant now. Removing that and the door he’d made could come later, but it wasn’t an immediate priority.

After giving the door to unlock a new Boon one last look, he left the building, the decision of which Boon to pick still rolling back and forth in his mind.