Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!

The more time that Aoni spent drafting blueprints for his first village, the more frustrated he became.

Without possessing any architectural knowledge or artistic skills, he was at a disadvantage, and no matter how much thought he put into the design, it never seemed to turn out the way Aoni wanted.

Luckily, he wasn't alone in making such a big decision, and with her keen eye for patterns, Nyria was able to offer him some insight into what looked good versus what looked bad.

Eventually, by the time he came to the final mock-up he'd drafted, Aoni, with approval from his birb, finalized what he believed to be the perfect design.

Taking into account the dual levels presented by the unique terrain of the Cavern, the upper ring, as it would now be called, was where the majority of dwellings would be located.

By utilizing the naturally formed walls of the structure, he could back the houses up to them, leaving enough space for what could be considered small backyard plots.

At the same time, the front door of each building would face toward the center of the Cavern.

By setting things up in this way, not only would Aoni have plenty of space to put well over 50 small 2-3 bedroom homes the size of, say, an apartment, but since he planned on placing down only a handful of them to start off, it allowed for expansion depending on how many residents eventually decided to call it home.

Mind you, the idea was that only the people he considered CORE members of his Territory would end up living here, but overall, it was a good way to start setting things up.

Each house would end up being rectangular, considering that was what would be summoned with his Nodes, and in the beginning, they'd all be pretty much cookie-cutter houses that had no variation or unique properties, but that was a problem for a different time.

Going with rectangular homes would allow for plenty of space to add in paved sidewalks around the central part of the upper ring and allow for easy access to the multiple stairways he planned on adding in to allow for safe travel down to the main area, aka Lakefront.

However, there wouldn't only be homes in the upper ring; Aoni also had plans to add a small market area, along with different multipurpose buildings for crafting, storing resources, food, a restaurant, basically anything he could come up with, hell there was even a building on the blueprint labeled "Entertainment" which to his innocent mind meant something like a library or bar, or perhaps a playground for young summonses like his birb and floof.

Due to it being the largest part of his village, the bulk of it was going to be put to use in that way, leaving the Lakefront space for important infrastructure, such as his Manor, a training area, and a small farming area. He'd even gone so far as to quarter off a space of the lake for "recreational use."

Bearing all those plans in mind, Aoni finally got up and got back to work.

First and foremost on his schedule was setting up the space for use, IE, using some of his Terrain Manipulation Nodes to not only even out the rocky ground but also clear out things such as the annoyingly large rock tendrils jutting out in random places.

Having gotten the hang of using the nodes thanks to erasing all the tunnels, this was a relatively quick process, and by the time Glacia returned from her mid-day nap time, she was greeted by a drastically different sight than what she had come to know.

Reaching up to 25 feet high, the walls of the Cavern's upper ring were not only uniform and flat but also smooth as cut stone, thanks to the Energia Crystals extracted from the site.

The floor, once bumpy and uneven, was perfect, flat, and easily traversable.

Standing at the single entrance to the Cavern, Glacia was not only stunned but also confused when she saw this change. If it weren't for seeing Aoni across the Cavern still hard at work, she probably would have run away screaming something silly, like a monster had come and eaten the walls.

A few feet away from her slow-moving Lord, Glacia spotted Nyria flying around while plucking glowing Energia Crystals off the wall like they were fruits, and the floof quickly joined her family in working.

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Sometime later, the upper ring had been completed, and Aoni's next chore was giving the lower ring the same treatment as the upper.

Funny enough, due to the sheer size of each Node's effect, he'd been able to overlap it with not only the walls above but below as well, knocking out three birds with a single node, Aka, Aoni's also been able to create several sets of staircases leading down.

Boom Booom boom boom booom boom

Time and time again, loud, concussive sounds shook the ground of the Cavern as he moved all around the lake, flattening the land. Finally, after roughly three hours had passed since starting, the Cavern was ready for the next step in building.

However….

"Gahhh, im fucking TIRED!" Although the stage had been set, Aoni was exhausted from expending so much Energia and mental power; after all, activating and using a Node, no matter the grade would have a certain effect on the mind and EC of the one using it.

"Cheeeee," Dropping down on the smooth ground beside her lord, Nyria didn't even speak through the LoS, and simply chee'd her exhaustion aloud.

As for Glacia…well, she'd already gotten bored and gone out to hunt. Her attention span didn't permit such complicated tasks. After joining Aoni and her sister for a bit, she grew incredibly bored and ended up nearly causing Aoni to fall into the lake…more than once, so he sent her off to play on her own while he and Nyria continued setting things up.

'She's just a babbbby,' Aoni thought while smiling and turning his head side to side and examining the fruits of his and Nyria's labor.

"Okay, 30-minute break, then we gotta head up to the fort." Closing his eyes and vaguely aware that Nyria was cuddling up beside him, Aoni took a brief power nap, for the next part of his plan was sure to cause him some heartache.