You have unlocked Lord Skill [Efficient Allocation].
Efficient Allocation: Reduces construction material cost by 1–5%.
Isaac smiled as he read the description.
It was not flashy. There was no dramatic damage multiplier or instant territory expansion. Just a percentage reduction in material cost.
But he understood value.
The savings would stack slowly. Every wall, every tower, every artillery emplacement would cost slightly less. Over time, that would save him a lot of resources.
He nodded to himself.
"Good. It’s practical."
He checked the rest of the building notifications again to ensure nothing had been missed.
Then he tapped his watch.
"Ruby, assign proper personnel to the newly completed buildings."
"Understood, Lord Isaac," the City’s AI responded smoothly.
"Prioritize defensive structures first. After that, staff the Market and Divine Doctrine."
"Command acknowledged."
He closed the interface and opened the details of the Divine Doctrine building.
Divine Doctrine
Level 1
Description: It represents a young False God who is on his journey to shed his mortality and attain Godhood.
Effect: Collects Faith from those who pray to you.
Current Faith Production: 10 Faith / Day
Note: Each unit of Faith can be used to increase the construction speed of a building by 10%. At current level, five Faith can be used on one building.
Isaac leaned back slightly and grinned.
"This is the best part."
Ten Faith per day meant he could accelerate two buildings by fifty percent every day. That was massive. Construction time was the main bottleneck in territory expansion for Isaac.
He almost felt tempted to actively expand his religion.
"If I increase believers, Faith production increases too..."
He paused.
Then he remembered something.
The highest known Domain of his was NTR.
He rubbed his forehead.
"I need to make myself appear as a farmer, and get Farmer Domain instead."
And to get Farmer Domain, he needed to make sure everyone understood the value of his crops.
He created a clone and sent it toward the newly completed Market building.
The Market was less of a building and more of a dimensional anchor point fused partially with reality. From the outside, it resembled a structured plaza lined with white boundary stripes marking its edge.
Inside, however, was something else.
His clone stepped across the white stripes.
The world shifted subtly.
[You have entered Market opened by Imperium Aeternum. Owned by Lord Carus.]
[Please note: Combat is not allowed in Market. Violation of rules will lead to strict penalties.]
[For additional regulations, please refer to the Market Guidebook.]
Another clone appeared beside him and summoned the Market Guidebook interface. It began scanning through the rules while the first clone walked forward.
The interior resembled a massive bazaar. Structured plots lined both sides of wide pathways. Each plot represented a Lord’s allocated space.
His own section was empty for now.
He walked to the far edge of his plot.
Beyond it, instead of seeing his city, he saw another Market zone belonging to a different Lord.
He nodded slowly.
"As expected, it works like this."
All Markets in the same Sector were dimensionally fused together. It was a shared commercial subspace. Lords could interact, trade, and negotiate here.
He tried stepping backward toward the white boundary.
With a simple thought, he exited.
He reappeared near the Market border inside his own city.
Instant return to his Market.
A convenient function.
He stepped back in and continued exploring neighboring stalls. No one could fight here. The System strictly enforced that.
However, according to the Guidebook, swindling through negligence was permitted.
"If you’re stupid enough to sign something without reading it, that’s your problem," Isaac murmured.
The System had no interest in protecting foolishness.
After a brief tour, he withdrew his clone and returned focus to his original body.
There were more pressing matters.
He took out his personal device and dialed Chairman Lucius Calloway.
The call connected quickly.
"What is it?" Chairman Lucius grunted.
"I wanted you to look at the Market. But... why do you sound displeased?"
"My daughter came from your house, and now she’s in a low mood," Lucius replied flatly.
Isaac almost laughed.
The man truly didn’t like him. He was always looking for excuses to show that.
"She is in low mood because she got a Quest. From what I understand, there’s a high possibility of death. She’s conflicted. The reward is excellent, but the risk is high—"
"What?" Chairman Lucius’ voice sharpened immediately. "High possibility of death? Selene!"
Isaac could hear movement in the background, footsteps echoing.
It seemed Chairman Lucius was moving towards Selene’s office.
"Stop," Isaac said firmly.
"Isaac, thank you for telling me about the Quest. But I have to talk—"
"Let her make her own decision, old man. This is the only way she’ll overcome her trauma. And don’t worry," Isaac added. "If she initiates the Quest, I’ll go with her."
The line went quiet.
Isaac wasn’t sure whether Chairman Lucius had stopped walking or simply muted himself in thought.
"Old man?" Isaac called out.
"It’s Chairman Lucius for you," came the reply, slower now. The urgency had faded, replaced by tiredness.
"How about Father-in-law?" Isaac said with a grin.
"Do you want to meet my shotgun?"
"Come on," Isaac laughed lightly. "You mentioned dowry last time. And it’s not like Alice will listen if you tell her to come back home."
He knew exactly where to poke.
Chairman Lucius made a low sound that might have been a suppressed curse.
He neither denied nor accepted Isaac’s words.
After a moment, Chairman Lucius spoke again, his voice calmer and more serious.
"Will you really go with Selene for her Quest?"
"Yes?" Isaac wondered why he was asking about it. "Ah, are you worried I can’t enter her Quest? Don’t worry I have an item that—"
"I’m asking if you’re truly fine with putting your own life on the line. You said yourself it’s dangerous."
"Yes? If I wasn’t fine with it, I wouldn’t have said I would go with her. Why are you—"
"It’s fine. I got my answer."
There was a faint sigh.
"You know, Isaac," Lucius continued, his tone turning solemn, "I don’t like you."
"Grass is green."
"But," Lucius went on, ignoring him, "every time something serious happens, your decisions show me why Alice and Selene trust you."
"...."
"Thank you for always being there for my daughters, Isaac. Please, take care of my daughters in the future just like you do now."
"..."
"Say something, brat."
"...why are you acting like you are going to die—"
Beep.
The call disconnected.
Isaac stared at his device for a moment.
He scratched his head. "Did I joke too much?"
He shook his head and put the device away. Chairman Lucius was not the type to express sentiment openly. At least not to Isaac. That short exchange probably cost the man more pride than he would ever admit.
Isaac shifted his focus back to work.
Through the System interface, he placed a few more defensive structures under construction, using part of his newly earned Faith to accelerate one of the Mana Cannon Emplacements.
"Efficient Allocation is already saving materials," he muttered. "Not bad."
After confirming Ruby had assigned personnel to the other buildings, he began walking back toward the house.
On the way, his clone transmitted new information.
Averon Solkara, Lord of the Solkara race, had successfully hunted a monster inside the Great Plains dungeon.
Isaac raised a brow.
"That fast?"
Apparently, Averon had failed the first attempt. The Blazing Pterodactyle hunted in groups, which explained the initial setback. After retreating, Averon had called reinforcements from his city and launched a coordinated second assault.
This time, they succeeded after breaking of a monster from its group.
The Blazing Pterodactyle was the same species Isaac had previously encountered. Strong aerial dominance, sharp talons, and movement in groups.
Isaac’s lips curved faintly.
The interesting part wasn’t the hunt itself.
It was what happened after.
The dungeon administration building he had constructed outside the Great Plains dungeon had been used to process the corpse.
That building allowed fast segregation and preservation of monster parts. Since high-tier monster components lost potency quickly after death, it was essential to harvest them efficiently.
Averon had brought fighters, not specialists. So he had no choice but to use the facility.
And at that exact time—
Emily "coincidentally" had been there.
While the technicians were extracting usable materials, Emily had quietly accessed the corpse. Using her items, she revived the lingering soul fragment of the Blazing Pterodactyle.
Before Averon noticed anything unusual, she had already subdued and tamed it.
Isaac couldn’t help smiling.
"This business is going to be a lot more productive than I thought."
Now they had a new flying summon.
Not as strong as the Crimson Sky Wyrm, but close, which was a terrifying level of strength.
’System, share Emily’s new summon!’
Blazing Pterodactyle shared.
An orb formed within his mental space, joining the others. Inside it, he could sense the restless, fiery presence of the Pterodactyle.
He could summon it at will.
"That makes our aerial force stronger," he said.
He disengaged the clone and returned full focus to his main body.
By the time he came out of the house, Vale, Alice, and Professor Catherine were already waiting outside.
Sword Empress stood beside a jeep parked near the gate.
Isaac slowed slightly.
Catherine’s face looked pale.
Not sickly. Just... resigned.
"Sit in the jeep," Sword Empress said calmly. "We’ll go to the training site with it."
Isaac nodded and moved toward the passenger side.
He glanced around. "Emily isn’t coming?"
"Master dotes on Emily," Catherine replied flatly.
"...What does that mean?" Isaac tilted his head.
Of course, Isaac had heard that the training was going to be brutal.
But there was no way it could be something so extreme that it would make Catherine turn pale and cause the Sword Empress to bar Emily from joining the training, right?
’How bad can it really be?’ he thought.