As they walked out, Adam spoke up, “Maybe it would be good to build a couple of apartment buildings now, as well. We still have people in the inn, which of course works, but maybe we keep that for new arrivals. What do you think?”

  Ben nodded vigorously, “Makes sense, giving people a more permanent home is a good thing!”

  First, they walked to the southwest corner of the settlement, where their current field and greenhouse were located.

  As he saw Liz and Zack standing outside with some monks looking at something in the field, he called out to them and waved them over.

  “Hey you two, I hope all is well. We come with gifts!” he grinned.

  Liz clapped her hands, “I love gifts. What is it?”

  “You remember our discussion on lacking grain? You can now hop on the System Store and buy some seed, because we will build a second greenhouse,” Adam said.

  “This is excellent news. By my calculations we should be able to produce 720 kilos of wheat per month. The productivity in kilograms is more than 80% lower than for the fresh produce, in particular potatoes, but the caloric content is four times higher, and given people’s habits of eating bread and cereals, the production of grain should be a priority.” Zack’s excitement showed in a different way.

  They quickly agreed on the placement of the greenhouse, right north of the existing one, which allowed Ben to indulge himself by entering the blueprint for the settlement and confirming the location and build of the new construction.

  Within seconds the structure, made from marble, glass, and a lot of Energy, rose from the ground.

  Ben couldn’t contain his happiness at adding another building block of safety and quality of life with the greenhouse, and he grinned widely.

  He used the moment of happiness to quickly confirm the placement of the Waste Energy Interface, burying the pain of spending 500 SCs on something that, while a must-have, did not have the same emotional benefit as an apartment building or the library.

  They left Liz and Zack to explore their new playground, with Adam promising them the funds to buy the seeds later the same day.

  Next, they waved a few kids from two blocks on which they raised two more apartment buildings. Soon, they would need to either extend the palisades further or build a second apartment building per block, which was the long-term plan, but for now they still had sufficient space. Adam would work his magic on allocating people to their new homes later. To prevent people from messing around, they locked the buildings for now.

  Supporting their own crafters had been a priority for Ben from the start. It felt like something that would give them autonomy, help restart an economy eventually, and give people purpose. So building workshops seemed like a milestone to him.

  They walked to the southeast corner of the settlement. The workshops were all relatively small, 10 by 5 meters. He wondered whether there would be upgrades available later, but instead focused on the here and now. The two basic workshops, which would probably be used by leatherworkers and similar crafters, the smithy, and the alchemy lab would all go into one block, forming the heart of their future commercial and crafting neighborhood.

  While the basic workshops looked like regular buildings, the smithy and lab looked quite sturdy, with thick walls and small windows. To Ben’s surprise they had two floors. He was eager to explore them but restrained himself, wanting to finish the build process first.

  This left the training grounds as the last construction for now. They walked the few hundred meters to the northwest corner of the settlement.

  Tracy was currently working with a group of kids, of course including Sarah and Kevin, going through some basic stretching and calisthenics with them.

  After a set of pushups, Allison shouted, “Who wants a break?” which generated muted cheers from the teenagers and a chuckle from Tracy.

  In one corner of this extra-large block was the tiny library and now, they would fill in the other side of the block. Without much further ado, Ben confirmed the construction and waited with bated breath for how it would look.

  First, the floor of the allocated area, 60 by 40 meters, sank almost one meter into the ground. On the west side three rows of marble spectator seats, simple steps, rose from the ground. They were overlooking four sparring rings that had a slight elevation from the ground and were made from packed dirt, encircled by marble rings inset in the floor. The rings had a diameter of seven meters. To the east of the rings was a thin area that had marksman targets on one end. It was surrounded on three sides by a mostly transparent, slightly golden shimmering force field, which likely served to protect everybody from stray arrows.

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  The remaining half of the area was dedicated to fitness, with two large flat spaces for group exercises. One also featured some equipment that vaguely looked like fitness machines.

  Ben knew his eagerness for the facility wasn’t entirely rational—they could have kept training on plain grass—but he was happy nonetheless. Any kind of advantage would help keep them safe. It was worth it in his view.

  As the training ground was completed, a golden system notification appeared in his vision.

  Congratulations on building the first training ground in the Protectorate.

  The training ground is a place of exercise and learning, a place of growth.

  For sustained growth, Earthlings need to find and pursue their own path, this facility will play a minor role on that journey.

  The training grounds will facilitate (Body attribute) perk development. The speed is largely dependent on the instructors allocated.

  You can name up to five permanent instructors.

  Good luck!

  That made Ben even happier. Being able to accelerate perk growth with a building was incredible. His smile spread to Barry and the rest of the team around him.

  He quickly allocated Barry and Tracy as instructors and told them about the feature.

  “Mhh,” Barry rumbled, “this is excellent, indeed. We will make sure to make the most out of this. Thank you, Ben, for insisting on this. Keep pushing us forward like that,” he said as he clasped Ben’s shoulder.

  “The pleasure is all mine! Now, I want to grab Luz, Carter, Marcus, Thomas, and whoever else wants to get on with crafting and explore the workshops!”

  “Me too, but we need to agree how we allocate them, actually. I could imagine that there will be more people interested than we have workshops right now…” Adam said.

  “Ugh, that’s true. Any suggestions?” Ben said, looking at his mother.

  “For one, this is a good reminder that you two need to start thinking about how to run our economy in the not-too-distant future. For now, from what I have seen, we won’t have an issue with the smithy and the lab. There might be one or two people interested in learning how to become a smith, but there shouldn’t be a problem with Marcus taking the lead and the others being more like helpers or apprentices for now. Not that he is a master, but he has the perks and some experience. Same for Luz, I don’t think there is anybody even close to her skill and perks in alchemy.

  “For the other two workshops, we should have a look at how many workstations they have, because if there are two or three, we should probably be fine. Either way, we could have maybe a system where Carter and Thomas become the ‘hosts’ of the workshops and, besides working there themselves, they allocate free spots to others based on a simple rotation.”

  “I like that very much, assuming they want that, as well!”

  Nothing could shake Ben’s good mood that day.

  They grabbed the four ‘old-timers,’ not all by age but rather them being part of the family since before Arrival Day, and headed towards the workshops.

  First, they entered the alchemy lab. On one side, it had a furnace-like fireplace with a medium-sized cauldron and a large ventilation system on top of it that did not seem to be connected to a chimney—likely an Energy-based feature. The other two-thirds were filled with worktables, complete with mortars, flasks, and other lab equipment, as well as storage spaces with lots of small drawers.

  Luz’s smile outshone Ben’s.

  In the back there was a small stair to the second floor, which Ben climbed quickly. It turned out that there was a fully furnished small apartment included in the building, allowing the crafters to stay close to their workplace if they wished. Given the space constraints that they still had, this was a nice bonus for the settlement.

  The smithy was also fully furnished with a furnace, also with a ventilation system, anvil, quenching basin, as well as some worktables and lots of tool racks and storage spaces. Everything looked a bit more rugged and sturdy than in the lab but of equal quality—at least as far as Ben could tell.

  The basic workshops were similar, just without the furnaces and instead more workbenches and a wider assortment of tools. The setup should be equally good for carpenters, tailors, mechanics, and others.

  All four of their crafters were happy to play the role of host for one of the workshops and were also happy to move into the small apartments after having to share their homes with others since they had all moved from their cabins into the system-generated buildings.

  When they finished, Ben stood with Adam, Barry, and his mother in the sun. “You know, if every day was like this…”

  “You are right, son, let’s be happy for the good things, so that we can find the strength to deal with the rest. Try to take the rest of the day off and enjoy yourself.”

  ***

  Ben spent the rest of the day talking with the people in the settlement. The mood was still somber after the attack two days prior, but while some remained terrified, most were slowly making peace with the situation, and the new buildings highlighted how much progress had been made in just one short month since Arrival Day.

  He sought out Jane to thank her for the firebomb that she had procured and used during the assault.

  “Don’t mention it! Those were my last cores from before, and I couldn’t hold back while you all were fighting like lions to defend us. I have been poor before, so being poor again is just motivation… and in fairness, this time I am getting wonderful food and housing for free, so it is not even right to call myself poor.” The old businesswoman chuckled.

  “But still, it is very much appreciated. Your whole family is extremely well integrated into the settlement and extremely helpful.

  “We are still not there yet, but if at any time you have thoughts on how to structure the economy and Protectorate finances, don’t hesitate to let Adam or myself know.”

  ***

  It was late afternoon when Luz found him, still smiling widely.

  “Ben, I thought you’d want to know, as I started working in the workshop, I got a notification that the environment leads to accelerated perk development! Thanks again for building those for us.”

  Ben gave the woman, who had been like an aunt to him for a long time, a hug. “That is fantastic news. I hope you have a lot of fun.”

  The talk about perk development made Ben pause to review his own perks. He was so close to Tier 2, and it was time to focus on getting [Fast Body] to get that final uncommon perk.