I had never heard of him before, but since the Token introduced itself as the God of Inventor, then who was I to question it?
"You can call me 'My Lord,'" I said and showed him the Elixir Collector Blueprint. "Can you make this?"
Tezla's monocle revolved back and forth, and after a while, he tore the Blueprint into pieces and it burst into particles.
"Why did you do that?" I asked.
Tezla laughed and pointed at his head. "Don't worry, my Lord. It's all in Tezla's brain now."
He then looked around and took a breather. "Now . . . where do you want to put your Elixir Collector and its storage?"
"If I may, my Lord," Athena chimed in. "We should put it outside your house proper beyond the inner walls, so it wouldn't take up space in here. Also, it could serve as another layer of protection to your TH since its HP is also enormous."
I did think of that idea. "We can't just leave it open, though. We can still put another layer of walls to enclose it." That meant there would be two layers of walls on my property.
My house was beginning to look like Fortress.
"Good thinking, my Lord. And in the future, you can change the locations of all the structures in your property if you upgrade your TH, which is your house. At the current, your TH is only LV.4. After upgrading to LV.5, you can move everything in your property and place all sorts of structures."
"That's the first time I'm hearing about that," I told her.
"Due to the Blood Rain, the explanation of the Town Hall or TH was put to a halt," she answered.
"No wonder there are some Blueprints that said that it needed a certain TH level before it could work or before it could be operational. This Teleportation Gate Blueprint said it needed TH LV.5 at least to work."
Athena nodded. "All upgrades, structures, and populations are all dependent on your TH level. For example, Daedalus could only upgrade your walls to level 4 at most, which are the stone blocks that you see. He can't upgrade it to the next level until you upgrade your TH to level five.
"Likewise, it's the same with all the structures on your property. The Animal Barn, Chicken Pen, Pigs Pen, Vertical Garden, etc. can't be upgraded unless your TH is upgraded first."
"I see . . ." The way she put it made it easier for me to understand. "As long as I upgrade the TH, everything will follow."
Athena nodded. "But do keep in mind that upgrading the TH has requirements. You can learn more about it in HAVEN's Menu."
As she said, I pressed the icon of my territory and pressed my house icon. It showed that I could already upgrade to the next level but that it would require ten thousand stones and five thousand lumber.
More foraging for me, then.
"How about the Elixir?" I asked.
"The Elixir would start harnessing mana as soon as your TH is level five," said Tezla. "But I can start working on it now if you want."
"Sure. You coordinate with Daedalus and Athena for the things that you need."
"Aye. Aye!"
I then faced Athena and asked her, "Can Tokens change the layout of my property?"
Athena nodded. "You can assign a co-leader position to a Token if you want. In that way, they could access HAVEN's menu and change the layout of the place."
"Good. I'll assign the role to you and Daedalus. It would make his work faster." I then addressed the big block of stone. "Daedalus, you can start upgrading my house first. Since the Blood Rain is finished, let's start expanding my territory."
"Understood, my Lord."
Now that was out of the way. I summoned Little Piggy next. It was time for the pig to show itself and explain to us what had happened.
A month had passed, and it was now fully recovered.
Little Piggy appeared before us, and the first thing it said was, "I'm hungry. Where's my food?"
"What happened to your venture into the mountain range?" I asked.
"I can't speak with a hungry stomach," it replied stubbornly.
Athena gave it fruits, which I didn't know where she magically pulled from, and Little Piggy munched on those.
"Satisfied?"
"What happened in the mountain range?" Athena inquired.
Little Piggy didn't care about me and was more inclined to reply to Athena's question than mine, not even giving me another spec of its attention.
"Forget about those mountains," Little Piggy said between munching, eating like he had been starved for centuries. "It's home to Yuko, that conniving fox. She took up a residence there after she was defeated by another God who stole her territory. Although she's injured now, she's still powerful."
"Powerful enough to almost kill you," I said, smirking. "Good thing that you became my minion, ey? It saved you from being roasted as her dinner."
Little Piggy choked and gave me a pointed glare. "I-I'm not just in my optimal condition! Being chained for many years had dulled my senses. It won't happen again!"
As Little Piggy got back to eating, Athena asked me, "Do you still want to move there, my Lord?"
"Forget about the Mountain Range for the time being and continue upgrading this land. The Breakwater has served its purpose well, so we don't need to move into the high mountains for now."
"Understood, my Lord."
"If what we know of Gods in this world is true, then that Yuko is tied to her new territory and won't be able to come here."
"Egh?" Little Piggy choked again. "Actually, Yuko lost her territory, and now she's only residing in the high mountains awaiting her death. A God without a territory is as good as dead. Away from the creatures who worshipped her, her powers will gradually fade, and so does her existence. Now, she's only waiting for death."
"And yet, you're still bested by this weakened God?" I mocked.
Little Piggy stomped her feet. "If you're so powerful, then why don't you go and face her?"
Hmm . . . I seriously pondered the idea. Having another God as a minion would surely benefit me in the long run.
"I think I will," I said. A change of plan was in order. "Maybe I can negotiate with her. If she doesn't want to die, then she can only agree to be my minion as well."
Little Piggy snorted. "Good luck with that. A God has so much pride, and they'd rather die than serve a mortal."
I looked at Little Piggy meaningfully. "You're also full of pride the first time I met you, but look at you now."
( . . . continuation on NOTES)
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel