One of the benefits of the blueprint were streets. They came along with it and didn’t require additional SCs.

  So first, he laid out a grid of streets. The plaza was surrounded by ten-meter-wide boulevards that stretched into the north / south and east / west directions. Smaller streets intersected to form blocks.

  As expected, the streets were made from the same white marble as all other system-created structures. They had shallow, 20-centimetre-wide runnels carved into each side of the street, dotted with miniature bridges.

  While the others were occupied by inspecting the streets, Ben quickly executed the most unglamorous aspect of their build today, the water treatment. Fortunately, it was truly just a white marble block that he positioned in one corner of a block to the south-east. Once that was built, water started to rise and flow through the small runnels, providing a bit of relaxing background sound to the hopefully soon bustling city.

  The twins were the first, but kids and adults followed quickly, running to the rivulets and dipping their hands in the cold water.

  Ben smiled and let them play for a few minutes.

  Eventually, he focused on the Settlement Interface again and executed the next build order: the greenhouse.

  It was the first structure not primarily made from marble. But even this building did not go completely without it. It had a knee-high base from the white, golden material and above it was clear glass with a pitched roof. It seemed 20 meters long, 10 meters wide and positioned in the south-west corner, close to the small field their resident biologists had set up.

  Liz and Zack clearly wanted to run over and inspect their new playground, but Ben stopped them with a glance. He wanted to complete the build process.

  Without further ado, he executed the build of the new apartments. In that process he also moved the first one they had built. None of the apartments were now directly adjacent to the plaza; he had also not built them all side by side, but distributed them across the blocks. As they would increase the population they would have to increase the density, but for now he left plenty of space between the buildings.

  The appearance of the 10 × 20-meter, two-floor buildings caused applause to rise up from the crowd. For most of them, this was the true start of building a new home in the Protectorate. Ben could see smiles, hugs, and tears. It was a good day.

  “Friends, I can see that many of you are keen to claim a new home, but please give me a few more minutes to complete this task. Afterwards, Adam will manage the allocation of apartments to individuals and families. Please note that we are still constrained on space, so not everything will be perfect. Please have patience.”

  With that, he initiated the next build. On the east side of the plaza, the largest building they had built so far emerged from the ground. It spanned the full length of the plaza, with thirty meters, it was three floors high, with the ground floor having a larger-than-normal height. The windows were framed in gold and over the wide entrance door a plaque showed a tankard and a bed.

  Ben had to chuckle, this Inn would probably be sufficient in a town ten times as large as theirs, and he was pretty sure it would take a long time until they had paying customers for the beds offered. But he was happy with the expenditure anyway; it would be a fantastic space for the community to come together.

  He looked over at Jane and winked. She was grinning like a madwoman, and he could see her counting the money she would eventually make from the place.

  Next, the building he had wanted to build since the beginning. A nucleus for the learning and growth he envisioned to take place in the Protectorate: the Library.

  He had merged two blocks in the north-west corner of the settlement in preparation for the small campus he hoped to establish soon for the Academy. For now, he placed the library in one corner of that space and expected a building at least as grandiose as the Inn to emerge.

  That was not the case. A building just a little larger than a shed emerged, still beautifully done, an emblem over the door: a blue-and-gold background with a white open book in the foreground. The door was so wide it took up almost the full front of the building.

  Ben was somewhere between curious and disappointed and resolved to explore the building as soon as possible.

  Finally, the last building for today was the one that the systems had gifted him for reaching Level 2, the Protectorate Headquarters.

  He hadn’t thought a lot about how this building would look, but in his mind he had expected to get a marble version of their old office, which had been basically an overblown closet.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Instead, another large building rose from the ground. It had three floors, was thirty meters wide, and twenty deep. He had placed it on the south side of the plaza, so that if you entered from the gate in the north, you would see the plaza with the central obelisk and behind the Headquarter. It looked … sturdy. The bottom floor did not have any windows, and the door was not made from wood but the same marble as the rest of the building, and even without stepping inside, Ben could tell the walls were thicker than those of any other building.

  The middle floor did have some windows, and the top floor quite a few. The flat roof was surrounded by a golden 20 centimeter wide border.

  Above the door was a 1 meter wide circle with the emblem of the Protectorate. The blueprint interface had prompted him to upload it beforehand, just as it had for certain interior-design options. But apparently there had been a misunderstanding, instead of the black background and dark blue mountain, there was a golden background and a mountain in the brilliant blue of the system to be seen. Just the white obelisk with the golden pyramid was unchanged.

  We liked the design, but a small tweak made it even better…

  He heard the somewhat amused and somewhat self-satisfied voice of Mesa in his head. Gone as quickly as it had come.

  Ben just shook his head and looked at Sarah and just shrugged at her confused look. He was sorry for her, after all it had been her design, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

  The mishap couldn’t dim his happiness as he surveyed the settlement. He knew there was lots to do. He knew that some things were completely unreasonable for a small group of barely more than 100 people. But it felt awesome anyway. A city of white marble, in the middle of the forest. Unlimited potential lay ahead of them.

  Ben stood in the middle of the Plaza and was taking it all in. Adam had found a function that blocked access to all the new buildings unless you were assigned to them. They would revoke that later, but for now they wanted to ensure that there was no landgrab happening and they had a chance to understand the features of the new buildings.

  Anne had come up and they had enjoyed the feeling of standing in this magical environment in companionable silence.

  He turned to her. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you to come to the city… I hadn’t switched my brain on… If Mom hadn’t insisted on sending Jamal and Michael, the trip would’ve ended in disaster.”

  She smiled, “No worries. There isn’t much that draws me to the city anymore. But I did miss our spars, we need to resume those.”

  “Absolutely. Want to explore the Headquarters?”

  As they stepped towards the door of the massive building both sides swung open automatically. They stepped into a large lobby. On the left was an entrance to an auditorium that was built half-way into the ground, offering space for several hundred people in a tiered sitting pattern, going down to a raised stage on the bottom. The only other major room on the ground floor was called a reception hall. Much smaller than the auditorium, but still larger than their old mess hall had been. It had a throne like chair in the back on a dais, and not much more, except for the Protectorate emblem on the backwall.

  “Well… this is a bit much, isn’t it?” Ben said, shaking his head.

  Anne laughed, “I think Adam will get a heart attack, wasn’t he adamant about never calling you Sir or something. If you use this he might have to call you ‘your majesty’…”

  “Yeah, better to close that door and not open it again for some time…”

  A bit hidden behind those two large rooms were stairs leading to the next floor. One third of the floor was called guest suite and it was huge. Three bedrooms, with all amenities, large living rooms. It was nice.

  “If this is only the guest suite, what on earth will your suite be like?” Anne was amazed.

  The other two thirds of the floor were various offices, including one for the Protector in the northwest corner, overlooking the plaza and all the way to the gate.

  One of the walls was paneled with bookcases, empty for now, and one of the book cases turned out to be a hidden door that led to a narrow staircase leading down. They followed it down curiously, as they hadn’t seen the equivalent stairs on the ground floor, and indeed, the stairs led further down, until they reached a small room that had just two features: a massive metal door and a thin, hip- high plinth with a golden plate on top.

  Ben stepped forward, put his hand on the plate, and the door, that was 30 centimeters thick, opened noiselessly into a five-by-five meter large room that had shelfs on the wall but was otherwise empty.

  “Well, it looks like our valuables will be safe…” Ben said with a laugh. Having a vault like that was cool, but he had increasingly the feeling that this whole set-up was far beyond what he deserved, or frankly needed, right now. They really expected him to grow the heck out of this place… He’d been so caught up in day-to-day survival—acquiring dungeons, training—that he’d never stopped to think about what it would mean to reach level 4, 5, 6 with the settlement. What it would be like to be Protector of a hundred thousand people.

  He shook his head. Better not to think about it now.

  They quickly returned to his office and then went up to the final floor, which had just a single use: Ben’s new apartment.

  To say it was large would be a monumental understatement. It had a ‘private’ space which consisted of a large bedroom with bathroom, another office, and an exercise room. The more public space contained a large open space for living, dining, and cooking. On top of that there was a library and half a dozen guest rooms with bathrooms.

  Ben walked through the space speechless. “What a monumental waste of space. There are people out there, probably billions, who don’t know where to get the next dinner from, and I have this space that is large enough to house multiple families…”

  “I agree that this feels a bit out of touch with the current situation, but I don’t think people will make an issue out of it.” Anne tried to reassure him.

  “Well, but it is an issue, whether people will complain or not. Hmm, I had already asked my mother whether she would stay with me. I think I will ask my sister and her family as well. Maybe Adam can stay here, too. Then we have the guest suite downstairs… Would you want to stay there? Maybe with Jamal and Michael, then we would have the full team under one roof and we would free up some space in the apartment buildings…”

  Anne thought for a moment before answering. “In principle, yes. But not sure what signal that would send to the rest of the crew, in particular the people that have been with you for a long time…”

  “Understood. Let me talk with my mother and Adam, and we will work something out.”