[Chapter 34. Guild]

  Searanox slummed down against the trunk of the tree, his rifle falling to the side as he dismissed his drones. And summoned one healing and one cargo drone. The drone with its shimmering white surface and pulsing teal lens descended upon him, its warm light enveloping his battered body. He felt a tingling sensation as the green light washed over him, sealing the gashes and mending the fractured bone in his chest.

  The cargo drone rose silently into the air, its metallic body reflecting the dim light as it sped off towards the house. He closed his eyes, letting the healing drone do its work, the pain slowly fading away.

  He thought as he watched the healing drone do its work, his HP slowly climbing back to its maximum. The cargo drone returned an hour later, with the lodestone in its spatial storage. He dismissed the healing drone and took the Lodestone from the cargo drone, its warmth a familiar comfort in his hands. Afterwards he dismissed the cargo drone again and slowly pushed himself up, slowly walking over towards the center stone.

  The moment he was inside the circle of stones the lodestone emitted a golden light, its runes glowing brighter and brighter. The stones themselves responded, their blue light intensifying, merging with the gold of the lodestone to create a blinding pillar of light that shot up into the sky. The ground shook, but this time it wasn't violent, it was a deep, resonant hum that vibrated through his very bones.

  "It will be known as KingGames, the one and only. Once banished, now back stronger then ever."

  For a fleeting moment, Searanox remembered the time he spend with whom he considered his friends. Everything was simple back then, back when the monsters were just pixels on a screen and not a danger to him personally. The Guild that he and his friends created, that was hated not by all but most. They never did something wrong per se, it was more how, they did it that struck the wrong cord in others. They only did what the game had offered them, never more. But in the end, they were a bunch of fucking assholes... he chuckled at the thought before his attention got wisped away by a new window.

  The pillar of light was a constant hum, while the System window was processing. It vibrated through Searanox's bones, a resonant thrum that harmonized with the golden energy pouring from the Lodestone that was hovering above the central stone. The air itself seemed to crackle and shimmer, charged with the raw potential of creation. The System window in his vision, its text clear against the backdrop of swirling light, yet it remained static, the processing status unchanging.

  Before he could look at the provided list a second window opened up on top of it.

  His smile was gone the moment he closed the second System window, all the joy of the previously mentioned boon was gone.

  he cursed in his mind, while scrolling through the never ending list of building types.

  While scrolling through the endless, shimmering list of potential structures, Searanox felt a familiar frustration building. The names alone were a jumbled mess of eras, from the brutally utilitarian 'Brutalist Bunker Complex' to the impossibly ornate 'Celestial Spire of the Star-Gazers.' He saw styles ranging from 'Gothic Revival Keep' to 'Geodesic Biosphere' and properties as mundane as 'Residential Hab-Block' and as esoteric as 'Temporal Anomaly Stabilizer.' It was a headache. He focused his will, filtering the overwhelming data down to a few core concepts that resonated with his pragmatic, power-hungry mindset.

  The list condensed dramatically, but the options were still too abstract. He pictured what he needed in his mind's eye: thick, imposing walls that could withstand a siege, defensive positions, room for expansion, and a design that spoke of absolute control, not aesthetic beauty.

  The name struck a chord. Without hesitation, he accepted.

  The pillar of light fractured, splitting into thousands of golden threads that laced out across the clearing. They wove through the air, tracing the blueprint of a structure that only existed in the System. Searanox got picked up and slowly floated over to the side, by thin threads of light.

  While stone and metal began to coalesce from the raw mana in the air, the ground groaning as a foundation of seamless, dark grey stone was laid. Walls, meters thick, rose from the earth in silence, their surfaces etched with subtle, runes.

  A central tower began to take shape, its design a strange mixture of gothic fortress and highly advanced megitech. Flying buttresses of blackened steel ribbed the tower's sides, connecting to a massive, tapering structure that stretched toward the sky. Breaking through the clouds above. As it grew, narrow, slit-like windows appeared, their depths glowing with a faint violet light.

  A flat, reinforced roof formed at the very top, surrounded by several spindly antenna-like spikes.

  The tower ascended with unnerving speed, its growth a silent process that seemed to defy gravity. Faint violet lights glowed at its outside, that pulsed in a steady beat that traveled up the tower in a wave, causing the lights to brighten.

  The antenna-like spikes at its crown began to flash, when ever the pulse reached the top. The entire structure was a masterpiece of architecture, a fortress that was both beautiful and terrifying. The pillar of light dissolved, and the tower stood complete, a silent, imposing sentinel in the heart of the forest.

  He simply stood there, staring up at the hundreds of meters tall tower, fully aware that he had just watched an entire fortress get printed into existence in less time than it normally took him to cook dinner.