Once he had made up his mind on how to proceed, Severin’s mind immediately cleared up, and he once again took note of his surroundings and the ongoing discussions. As was usually the case, he, for the most part, opted to listen from the sides rather than taking an active part in these types of conversations. On the occasions he felt compelled to actually divulge information about himself or his past, he naturally kept things as vague as possible. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to join the boasting and bragging, but he had learned his lesson last time. He knew Andreas was just waiting for an opportunity to question him about the whole dragon-slayer business.

Nevertheless, even as he wondered whether he would ever really fit in with these people, Severin started to become more and more comfortable in this place.

As the evening proceeded, Emily took the initiative to interrogate the present adventurers about their previous experiences and lost herself in the stories about the guild’s last encounters in the Harrowing Plains, which was also the group’s next destination. Not much seemed to be left of the girl’s general aversion to adventurers.

Severin, who by now had already heard countless similar recounts, decided it was a unique opportunity to talk with Krey - someone who was sent by the renowned Adventurer’s Society - instead.

He didn’t learn anything that Samuel didn’t tell him before, but confirmed his suspicion that this organization was pretty much the same as the ‘adventurer guilds’ he read so much about in the fantasy stories of his homeworld.

But no matter how much he enjoyed himself, during all that time Severin was secretly very impatient and was looking forward to the last group of people finally calling it a night. After all, he still had something to do.

When the time finally came, he said his goodbyes and headed for the wooden hut. He carried a sleeping Emily inside her room before heading back into the store, which also served as his living room and bedroom.

Once inside, Severin busied himself for another half an hour or so with pointless tasks such as dusting his ever-spotless counter or adjusting the position of the items on his shelves. Only then, when he decided everyone else besides him on the mountain should be deep asleep, did he finally open the System’s shop menu.

“No way I’ll let anyone else just simply claim a spot of land up here. Even if it wouldn’t end up limiting the area, the System would allow me to access, in the end, it would just result in unnecessary trouble,” Severin said to convince himself of the correctness of his decision before he decisively made the purchase. With that, no one would be able to do as they pleased. At least not up here.

In that instant, the minimap in his peripheral vision suddenly changed and about twenty-odd dots appeared.

[Congratulations! By acquiring all the available space in the immediate vicinity, you have unlocked new purchasing options.]

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

That came as a surprise. A pleasant one; And one that made sense.

“Not bad!” A rare compliment for the System left Severin’s lips after investigating the meaning of this notification. “It seems I can now purchase underground plots of land. And… don’t tell me…” He couldn’t believe his eyes as he kept clicking through the menus. Where previously there was a static map of the mountaintop’s surface to accurately select the plot of land he wanted to buy, there was now a side view of the mountain available as well. “That piece of rock is even larger than I thought!” Severin was elated. All the possibilities!

At a first glance, he didn’t even believe that this was the very same mountain he was standing on right now. That was because when zoomed all the way out, to capture the mountain’s whole size, the wooden huts located on the top had virtually disappeared.

Only when zoomed in closer did Severin recognize his home.

“And here I debated whether to leave out a small piece of land for people getting blacklisted. Good thing I didn’t.” Just the thought of missing out on this new feature and the possibility of expanding his domain by what seemed to be far more than ninety percent, just to accommodate the likes of Simon, made him shudder.

“Now that I already spend some money, I might as well continue.” His good mood made him loosen up a bit. “At the very least, I should provide them with a dedicated sparring ground as a replacement. Can’t have them rampaging around on the property. Nor can I leave them hanging. It would just feel wrong. Besides, I reckon it would harm business. As long as these guys have a good opportunity to fight, they’ll keep consuming potions. Elixirs as well, probably. This also reminds me… might as well look into these training dummies.”

Severin navigated the System for a while until he found the item in question and read its description. “Rather unspectacular, I’d say.” He was clearly disappointed. “I hoped it would be more than just a fancy punching bag, but it really seems to just be this stationary thing, unable to retaliate in any way. Well, whatever. If I’m not mistaken, it was Xander who had asked for them back then, so I suppose there should be some kind of demand for them. And at this point, what’s a few thousand more? Might as well splurge a bit.”

Having made up his mind, Severin specifically designated a generously sized and especially paved area as some form of a training ground and placed it about two-hundred meters away from his doorstep. It was definitely larger than the space ravaged by the regular fighting. Knowing that in the future it was pretty much impossible for him to run out of land to build on, Severin wasn’t stingy. And should it be necessary, with the help of the System and a small fee, he could always move his property around on this floating island.

He decided to also add three of the dummies.

“Fifty thousand. Damn. That’s quite the setback. Seems like the dream of an inn is now a long way off. But all things considered, it’s not that bad. It’s an investment. As long as the quality of the new stuff is up to par, I won’t complain.”

He had the urge to run back outside and check everything out but soon dismissed the thought. By now, it was too dark outside for him to see anything, anyway. Unless he wanted to get close and risk waking everyone up. He still had enough self-control and instead decided to try to sleep.