When we returned home, it was already a late afternoon, and the sun was already setting. I entered the war room and looked at a map of Avalon itself, thinking about what expansions I would like to make. Amber, who took a while to change her official dress to something lighter, came just after I finished crafting an ambitious plan. She was wearing a light-coloured dress, right over her knee, which was so thin that I couldn't take my gaze from her for a long moment, making her laugh.
"Theon, you are making the same face as when we first met." She giggled, taking a seat on the sofa near the smaller fireplace before she clapped her hands, summoning one of the servant slimes.
"Maybe it’s because you still look so beautiful." I grinned back, but she suddenly got serious.
"Theon... Back then, I was simply ugly." She said and her big emerald green eyes dimmed with sadness. "I couldn't recognize myself just after a few days in Avalon. But I swear! I..."
"Hush, my Darling. Yes, I have seen your lacerations. I have seen your deep scars and bruises. But you always looked insanely good to me." I smiled warmly at her and she tilted her head, clearly with little understanding of what I meant. "Back then, I was still mostly a reborn human who was grossly vulnerable to everything evil in this world. But I was looking not only at your body back then, but into your soul as well- that was a passive ability I couldn't control back then. So I saw a tired girl, who despite the hardships and cruelty this world has to offer, was still shining like a pure gemstone. I saw your convictions. I just saw who you are, Amber."
"You never told me that..." She looked at me, surprised, when the doors opened and a slime butler entered carrying a large tray with cookies and afternoon tea.
"You never asked, my Sweetheart." I chuckled and admired her delicate profile when she took a cup of tea from the butler. "But I noticed the things you mentioned. They were not bothering me back then and looking at you now, I am more than happy." I added with a mischievous grin, making her laugh again.
"Everything was much simpler back then..." She smiled nostalgically at her memories. "Sometimes I still wake up in fear that I am dreaming."
"If not for Luna, I would already have forgotten how it was to dream, but I think I sometimes have a feeling how unreal this is. I remember myself dreaming about a world like this one in my previous life..." I smiled at my memories as well. "Do you remember when we were sitting in the Palace talking about how we could attract some adventurers to dwell on my grounds?"
"Yes... Things changed so quickly." She giggled and put her tea on the table. "Admittedly, we...you were insanely lucky."
"Without you, I would never have created Avalon in the first place. So we were lucky, my Queen." I winked at her and she smiled back. "But... Yes, the early days were so simple and carefree."
She nodded her head and stared at something outside the large window. The sun was setting, still early, but the day was significantly longer than just one week earlier. The sky was painted in different shades of orange and red, giving off a serene feeling of a warm summer evening, but outside still winter held, not eager to pass. Amber was looking at me now, with playful sparks shining within her eyes as she gazed upon my maps from the distance.
"I am here to make sure you expand properly this time, Honey." She smiled at me, and I heard the sound of doors being closed. When I turned my head there, I saw Irene and Luna approaching Amber. They then looked at me with mischievous smiles.
"You know I can teleport away?" I asked, somehow knowing they already won whatever game they were playing.
"Oh, you can... But you are going to sleep on the couch for next month." Luna brightly smiled at me, reassuring me in my initial thought about their... kind of ambush.
"I thought so... But why?" I looked at them confused, but they just laughed and went closer to me and looked at the projects I made.
"As your Prime Minister, Darling, I was very concerned about your current upkeep. You gained two vassals, well more like one vassal and one slave, but..! What are your current upkeep costs?" Amber asked carefully with a voice full of tension, as if she feared the answer.
"Haha... You see..." I smiled brightly at them and they took their seats near the war table, still looking at me in anticipation. "Something has broken, or more probably, housing the residents must be reducing the upkeep costs, because right now, I only need to pay about one and a half million mana."
"Are you sure?" Luna looked at her notes and squinted her eyes. "You should be paying double that, according to the calculations we both made a few weeks ago."
"I'm sure, my Vixen." I smiled and focused on my skills. "I still can't summon the entire skill list or raw data, but I think I made the World System tell me what I needed, and it's convenient enough, so I think I'm good. Anyway, I gained new skills after the subjugation of The Goblin Dungeon and appointing The Wolf Manor Dungeon as one of my vassals. I was not aware of them as they drowned in the sea of other messages, but it turns out they are very useful. One of them is lowering the upkeep costs of my subordinates, as long as certain requirements are fulfilled, and the second one is actually lowering my own upkeep costs, depending on how many enclaves I create and how big they are. The last one is not well specified, so I am still figuring it out."
"That's great news, Theon!" Irene gave a sigh of relief.
"I have a feeling that I met some hidden requirements to unlock this new passive skill. It’s called King, and it's at level 49 currently. The most annoying thing about it is how vague the description is." I picked up a sheet of paper and poured the skill description so they could see for themselves.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
It is as much a skill as the title you assumed. XXX skill level too low XXX
The leadership skills have their cost lowered by 10%
The total upkeep costs are lowered by 10%
The building costs are lowered by 10%
Level up for additional effect.
"It really is strange..." Luna looked at me with uncertainty in her gaze. "Skills should not look like that, but this one's effect is impressive!"
I nodded slowly, but soon enough I just shrugged to get over it. The skill was impressive indeed, and I wouldn't shun it, just because I was too sloppy to notice when I got it. Additionally, it was very strange since I hadn't seen it during the time I spent most of my free buy time. It was now clear to me not all skills were listed initially, but just the "starting pool" of skills I could buy from, and there were still many skills just waiting for me to discover them. I cleared my throat and pointed at the model of Avalon as I grinned at them.
"Contrary to your fears, I was not slacking off, and I actually came up with the idea of how to expand." I looked at them and made a hurt facial expression. "Don't look at me like that!"
"Ok, fine. Tell us what you came up with, and then we will show you our ideas." Amber took out a pile of papers and placed it near her.
"As you know, right now, Avalon is just a bit over one thousand and six hundred metres in diameter." I pointed at the map as my wives nodded their heads. "What I plan only looks insane, but in reality, it's one of the cheapest solutions. I plan to simply enlarge all three castles."
I moved my hand and the model of Avalon expanded far from its current borders. The inner castle with the Palace complex expanded almost to where the previous Avalon borders were, pushing other parts of itself away. Three women gasped in shock as they began to comprehend what they just saw.
"Theon, that's..!" Irene looked at the large lake, big enough to sail on it and the small forest with wonderful paved tracts I placed near the Palace. "... breathtaking!"
The artificial hill on which the Palace was located rose even more over the local plains, towering like a slumbering giant over the entire area. The Palace itself also was rebuilt and received two, three stories tall and fifty-metre-long wings that formed the U-shaped courtyard with a large and impressive fountain. The old Palace was enlarged as well and additionally got two more floors so it was now five stories tall, with a total of four towers connected to it. A wider tower each stood atop both of the new wings, each as tall as the new parts of the Palace, neatly connecting them with the old Palace. The two slender and taller towers were located at the back of the main part of the palace, granting incredible views over the area. The two-story greenhouse was located between the slender towers, but it mostly stayed untouched, because it was big enough already in my opinion.
"The Palace itself, our inner sanctum, will be one and a half kilometres in diameter." Their jaws collectively dropped as they stood speechless, looking at the model of Avalon. "The Middle Castle district, however, is going to be even bigger, while the dungeon part will have enough space for everyone."
"I think that my idea of making five additional underground cave levels is just silly compared to this," Amber sighed and gave me her notes.
Irene and Luna silently gave me their written proposals while looking at the new private park I planned to make. I saw the sparks in their eyes as they looked at the model, signifying they couldn't believe their own eyes.
"I promised you all, my Darlings, that I will create a safe sanctuary for us to live in," I said slowly with a warm smile on my face.
"Theon... How big is this?" Luna finally managed to look away from the model.
"The entirety of Avalon will be eight kilometres in diameter, occupying a bit over fifty square kilometres of area, making it a sight to behold. The walls and moat of Avalon will also be reshaped. The new walls will intimidate any enemy foolish enough to attack. Right now they are ten metres tall, but they will be fifteen metres tall and seven wide at the top, while being nine metres wide at the base. The moat is going to be thirty-five metres wide and five metres deep, with spikes near the wall bank." The model showed them how mighty the new walls would be.
"Gods..." Amber slowly sat down on the chair.
"What?!" Hestia, Zephyr, Hera and Zeus manifested in the room and they looked in silence at the model.
I smirked at them as I saw their faces. They all studied the plan in silence for a few moments before finally looking at me.
"Theon... How much will it cost?" Irene finally asked.
"It's not going to be cheap, I admit. But the initial cost will be offset by the relatively low upkeep costs. Right now I have sixty million mana points." Everyone looked at me in shock; even immortals looked uncomfortably at each other. "I will spend forty million to apply all these changes. The monthly upkeep will be laughable however- just two million mana points."
"And what's your current income?" Luna took out her other notebook.
"I have no idea." I laughed. "According to the World System, right now I earn one million mana points monthly. But there is a huge catch to it."
Everyone in the room looked at me, trying to understand why I even proposed something this grandiose, knowing I couldn't offset the upkeep, but I just smiled at them.
"Right now, only thirty percent of my residents are taken under consideration in the World System calculations." Their shock was palpable as they fully understood the implication of what I had just said.
•••
"Dad, why did we have to leave Avalon?" A small girl, maybe a four-year-old, was hugging her teddy bear to her when the wagon was quickly departing many kilometres away from their new home.
"Don't worry sweetie, we will return home very soon." Her mother replied without a moment of hesitation.
"Our King is making more space for us to live in, Clarie." Her father smiled and pointed at her toy. "You and Teddy will have much more room to play."
She smiled, but someone yelled and pointed toward the Castle and everyone looked just in time to see the mighty walls collapse. A bright flash of light startled them and blinded them for a moment, while the wagon they were riding in came to a sudden stop. When they regained their sight back, they couldn't believe their own eyes. Everyone stood up with mouths agape. They were looking at a gatehouse so enormous they could barely describe it.
Claire, in shock, dropped her teddy bear on the floor and pointed at the mighty gates and even bigger drawbridge. "Daddy... Avalon..! It caught up with us!"