He took the ticket out of his storage ring and looked it over a bit, not really sure what he was supposed to be doing with it. “uh.. Activate?” a system prompt suddenly appeared in front of his face.

  Would you like to use your D-grade Village ticket perfect quality?

  Sweet, so he only needed territory in order to use the ticket. Hopefully this meant he wouldn't actually have to do any sort of construction or building because he knew he was going to suck at that.

  Without further ado he promptly accepted and got a second system prompt asking him to select the location within his territory for the village. He decided to just go with the center where he stood.

  Please choose two free specialized buildings for your village?

  Note your third specialized building will be an automatic 75% off and your 4th specialized building will be 50% off. All subsequent buildings afterwards will be full price, specialized or otherwise.

  He tilted his head in confusion a little as he got a long list of various “specialized” buildings. It was a long list of buildings that, if he was being totally honest, didn't make much sense.

  Alchemist building, a barracks, hunting lodge, Smithy, Castle, architect building, Merchant guild, nobles mansion, Garden, Farm, Local teleporter, regional teleporter, Universal teleporter. Why were there so many teleporters??? And these were only a small list of everything that was being offered.

  Also, what made these buildings special? He was pretty sure he could just build a building and slap the word Alchemist building on it so what did the “Alchemist building” offer to him? The system provided no information naturally. He had to assume there was something different but he just got nothing.

  “So what are you going to do?” Grey asked, clearly curious.

  He went through the extensive list. He had to worry about the large amount of buffalo coming towards him within 6 months so he needed to pick some options that would help him fight off or deal with the massive stampede.

  He looked through the list, and more specifically focused on potential defensive structures. He felt like a wall was a good option and of course the system being a confusing shit offered him an Inner wall, outer wall, and a castle wall.

  He figured that the less surface area he had to defend the better so he would likely choose a castle wall as opposed to an inner or outer one since that would likely spread himself too thin considering he was the only one here. Plus he could probably slap that wall by the strip where he was pretty sure the buffalo would be coming from which would help greatly.

  This then led him to trying to find a second building or structure that could offer defense. The issue he was running into however was that it was just him. So even if he chose an extra building or structure he'd be the only one manning it and that meant he would likely and quickly get overwhelmed.

  He continued to think on things before his eyes eventually drifted towards one particular building called “system shop”. It bugged him that he might have to buy a building with the word system in its name but he wasn't sure if there was any other option. The reason why he was considering this particular building was the utter lack of potential resources.

  Sure there were probably resources hanging around the surrounding area but if he was going to try and prepare for a mass Invasion, then he couldn't spend all that time looking for something that might not even be useful, much less there. The system shop gave him the feeling that it likely operated similar to the tutorial point store. He likely put in credits and then grabbed whatever resources said credits could give him. This also meant he could try and increase his potential defensive capabilities without worrying too much on a building that may or may not help him.

  It was a shame that the system offered him jack shit in terms of what any of these buildings potentially did and it was mostly just him guessing their uses.

  He rubbed his forehead and then ultimately decided he would just buy the castle wall and system point store. If he didn't think he would be able to hold his territory, well it's not like he actually needed a territory anyways and would just leave. Nothing was actually stopping him from abandoning this place aside from misplaced pride and just having something he could potentially call home in the future.

  His mind made up, he selected the two buildings and the village ticket dissipated in wisps of smoke followed by a small shutter through reality and a beam of light snapping down and enveloping him before he even had a chance to react.

  All of this happened in less than a second and by the time he had a chance to process what had just occurred, he found himself standing in the middle of a courtyard with a gigantic wall around him.

  When he said giant he meant Giant, the walls probably stood a few hundred feet in the air complete with 20 towers along the circumference shooting even higher. The wall even had its own Gatehouse that looked grand, imposing and a comically large door that was perhaps 100 feet high and 50 or so feet wide. The diameter of the wall itself probably expanded through half of his currently possessed territory and while he couldn’t tell exactly from where he stood. He had a good feeling the walls themselves were extremely thick.

  How the hell did that even work? This was supposed to be a castle wall right? Weren't you supposed to put a castle in the center?? This fucking wall left several miles of space?? Would he have even been able to choose an inner or outer wall because he failed to see how an inner wall wouldn't just go outside of his claimed territory and probably through the E grade Zone.

  “ So much for minimizing the amount of ground you have to defend.”

  “No fucking kidding.” he muttered looking around said wall to try and figure out where his other building was before it dawned on him that this was a castle wall and thus a castle should be built inside. So that meant.

  With a groan he opened up his territory map window and sure enough the system store was outside the wall and practically sitting on the edge of the territory. At least it was on the opposite end of the strip where the buffalo should be coming from but that didn't really make him feel that much better.

  He was currently heavily leaning towards abandoning the territory and just letting the buffaloes rampage around. Kind of sucked but what can one do against the overwhelming numbers.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “ Oh come on, at least check out this store first. Who knows, maybe you'll actually think of some clever thing that will completely turn the tides in your favor. I have faith in you at least.”

  “Well I'm glad somebody does.” but she did make a point, even if he didn't want to admit it. He should at very least check out the store if for no other reason then to grab clothes and cooking utensils. If he could snag those then perhaps using this Village ticket would be worth it even if he did need to abandon everything.

  “You know I can't help but feel like many citizens of this universe would have just had an aneurysm from those thoughts you just had.”

  “Couldn't care less.” But before he could venture out, 20 more beams of light hit the ground in an instant before dissipating and there stood 20 fully armored, fully plated knights just a few feet away from him.

  Quill instantly jumped back in shock while manifesting both his pizza cutter, rat tail, and spider legs, fully expecting to be attacked. However, they all just stood there motionless and the fact that his survival Instinct skill wasn't blaring at him with warning, he was forced to wonder what the hell was going on.

  Tentatively and without dissipating his manifestations, he approached the various suits of armor. He couldn't see their faces with the visors on and they all stood deathly still which wasn't very comforting even if they weren't reaching for their weapons.

  “ If it helps at all, I don't sense a soul within any of these guys. Perhaps they are automatons, Golems or those system spawned thingies similar to the ones you ran into from the tutorial.”

  He considered her words carefully before looking at the center one who stood a little larger than the rest at about 8 ft tall if he were to guess. “Uh… hi?”

  “Greetings Lord. Do you have a designated area or role that you wish for us to take?” it's voice sounded deep with an echo, almost like it was nothing more then an empty piece of armor.

  “uh… okay pretend that I know nothing about anything in regards to you and this territory and village. Could you perhaps elaborate on your statement?”

  “Under your guardians tab in your territory sub menu you will find us listed. You may designate all rolls through that tab or order us directly in person.” Its voice came out across mechanical in its inflections. Like it was trying to mimic emotions in its tone but couldn’t quite grasp the concept.

  Still, he did appreciate how extremely straightforward the answer was. He didn’t need to stumble around various menus and try to figure out what the system wasn’t telling him. Just straight to the point.

  So he did exactly that and sure enough there was a guardian tab. It listed that he had 20 automated knights 19 of which were E-grade level 100 and one was an D-grade level 105.

  He sort of questioned the logic of the numbers and wondered what level someone would go from an e grade to a d-grade. It had to be between 100 and 105 which bugged him way more than it should have and he didn't even have OCD.

  “Really? that's what you're focused on??? You just got gift wrapped a bunch of very powerful Guardians for your territory!”

  “Yeah, I have no idea why I was just gift wrapped these automatons which makes me suspicious.”

  “This is the reward for activating a perfect quality Village ticket. Should you upgrade your village we will automatically upgrade with it.” The D-grade knight spoke clearly thinking he was talking to them. The automaton was surprisingly forthcoming for something that came from the system. Also, turns out getting that perfect quality was 100% worth it. Perhaps there was some hope in defending this territory from the stampede after all.

  “All right, D-grade guy and 4 E grade guys. Please escort me as I head out, the rest of you, I guess secure the perimeter of these walls or something.”

  “Sounding real commanding there. A true leader speaking with no hesitation.” Grey couldn’t help but sarcastically comment

  All of the knights saluted Quill regardless and he began his run towards his system shop with the 5 automatons following behind. They were very noisy which made sense considering they seem to be nothing more than hallowed armor but it was oddly reassuring to have such a powerful creation next to him that seemed to exist solely to protect him and whatever territory he seemed to possess.

  During this run though he decided to properly look through his territory tab to get a better understanding of everything. He had the guardian tab which gave him the option to add even more of them to his territory. However his hopes were completely dashed when he tried to do that as it then gave him the option to buy a G-grade, F-grade, E-grade and D-grade. With the cheapest being a low G-grade being a little over 10,000 credits and it getting prohibitively more expensive afterwards. So he quickly ruled out building a giant army and fighting numbers with numbers.

  A thought occurred to him and he wondered if his guardian page was only for the automatons or if we could add sentient beings or something else to the list. For the hell of it he tried designating a single blade of wind grass as a guardian and was actually surprised when it went through. It even gave him the option to name said blade of wind grass and he quickly named it Wind Cutter cause why the hell not. Truly the most powerful guardian among his forces!!

  As he continued to mess around and look through the tabs, he noted that he could actually buy various buildings with credits and they were the same buildings as the ones he could have chosen for free. It did make sense since the system did say his next purchase would be 75% off but even with that discount the fee was ridiculously expensive. even the cheapest one would cost him close to a million credits.

  With a tad more fiddling he quickly figured out that all of these buildings were in fact D grade buildings and he could lower the grade which would in turn lower the cost. He also figured out that he could move the buildings for a large credit fee but said fee was way too expensive for him so he was currently stuck with their placement for now.

  There also seems like he could designate already built buildings for something like an Alchemy, or Merchant building but they all require certain prerequisites to do so. He would then assume that these premade buildings already possessed the prerequisite.

  Going even further he could apparently also make districts, such as a farming district, a housing District, a shopping district, Etc. There was also a tab for residence, citizens, guests, even things like known criminals. It also seemed to give him the option to potentially monitor these people too in closer detail somehow but he wasn’t sure how that would work. It kind of gave off “big brother” vibes which he wasn't a fan of. He now understood some of his Rebellious Anarchist skills that allowed him to never show up on these screens. He was definitely going to have to take one of them when he had the next chance.

  There was also a job section where he could designate people for jobs such as treasury, secretary, General, all the classics. For the hell of it he tried to designate Wind Cutter as one of his Generals and it once again went through! So now Wind Cutter was a guardian and a General! They were moving up in the world and to think they started as just a lowly piece of grass. He couldn’t be more proud!

  He then went back to the map section of his territory menu and noted that his territory was expanding somewhat slowly in all directions it could, which was likely due to the two free buildings he had just gotten along with the armored automatons for guards, plus Wind Cutter and thus increased his population and development. He would have to check back in later when it had stopped moving to see how much more territory he had actually gotten.

  The automaton guards themselves had proved extremely useful as he had actually been attacked a few times by some stray landshark bullets on their way over but before he even had a chance to react they were quickly butchered. Hell, most of them didn't even get a chance to burst from the ground, the automatons just charged forward with blinding speed and slammed their weapons into the dirt killing the creatures instantly. He didn't get any kill notification though so he had to assume that despite working for him and not being able to level up he didn't get the experience.

  Eventually they reached the system shop and he made a quick mental note about changing the building's location so it was inside the wall when he had enough credits. But for now he'd probably designate some of his automaton to guard the place. He just hoped he would be able to buy something useful to help him deal with the buffalo that would soon be coming.