In Jason's alternate past, some speculated that the kingdom building floor was the towers way of helping those who were solo ascenders or those that lacked funds. If you were smart, it was possible to make loads of money on this floor. This floor didn't depend on how strong you were in combat. Instead, it was a test of your planning and strategic ability.

Jason's plan was simple. To grow stronger, he needed loads of weapons to extract battle energy from. He wanted to build a kingdom that was capable of producing equipment for him to consume. This way he wouldn't have to spend vast sums of money buying weapons from other ascenders.

After saying goodbye to Olivia, he entered the portal leading to the thirty-first floor. There was the familiar feeling of being teleported, and then weightlessness. Jason glanced around and found himself hovering in the middle of the sky. The sun was rising over the horizon, lighting up the untamed landscape. Directly underneath him were small houses surrounding a large rectangular building.

He felt many connections in his mind, much like his connection with Tank. In his mind's eye, he could see fifteen humans sleeping in the small wooden houses. At the top of his vision, he saw several boxes informing him of his resources. Fifty wood, fifty stone, fifty food, and fifty gold. An abysmal amount. At the bottom of his vision, he saw a bunch of boxes. Units, buildings, commands. When he focused on the unit box, a larger box appeared with detailed information.

Under the unit section, he was able to spend his resources to purchase villagers. As of right now, he had fifteen villagers. With Jason's experience, he knew that there was no threat to his village in the first week, so he poured all of his resources into buying more villagers. Each one cost ten food and ten gold.

For the casual ascender, they would back out of the unit box and open the commands box. From there, they would issue commands to their units. That way was slow. Instead of doing that, Jason directly sent out his will and commanded his villagers to act. As if inspired by G.o.d, they immediately moved accordingly to his will. Villagers were automatically equipped with the tools to harvest resources, though they were the least proficient in doing so. For now, though, they would do.

Five villagers went to harvest wood by chopping down the surrounding trees, five went to mine boulders littered in the forest, five went scavenging for food, and five went mining for gold. Considering that in the early stages of the kingdom there was very little to do, Jason activated the speed-up feature. Time could be sped up to sixteen times faster. This way Jason wouldn't have to wait twelve hours doing nothing while his villagers slept during the night.

While he waited for his villagers to gather resources, he constantly used his battle energy to mutilate his body. He found that his legs were the least painful, so he focused his efforts there. If I remember right, there was a potion that dulled your sense of pain. I should look into that. As time pa.s.sed, his villagers carried resources into the large building in the center of the settlement. Unlike the houses, this was a storage facility. It could store up to five hundred resources in total.

After around six hours, right when the cap was about to be met, Jason returned the time to normal. Because he purchased five more villagers, there was now no room for them to sleep. Instead of opening the building box, he willed five wooden houses into existence. Each house cost fifty wood and twenty-five gold. There was now ten houses in total.

Keeping in mind that there was no need for defenses or soldiers until the seventh day, he heavily invested into the amount of villagers he had. During the first week, he would maximize his economy as best he could.

One thing that made things interesting for Jason was that the floor that was created for his kingdom was different than the one from his previous life. As luck would have it, there was a wide river not far from his village. A river provided an infinite amount of food. The only problem was that it had a maximum output. Still, for the early days of development, it was a G.o.dsend.

Each villager was like an ascender in that they had the ability to grow stronger. If they chopped wood, they gained the woodcutting skill. It was the same for the other tasks. Because of this, it was efficient to make sure villagers performed the same tasks every day. From experience, Jason knew that building roads was the best way to speed up the efficiency of his entire kingdom. Unfortunately, the best road he could make right now was just a dirt path. It sped up all who walked upon it by twenty percent. A meagre, but decent bonus.

When he found the river, Jason immediately focused on building a path between it and the village. He also invested in a fis.h.i.+ng hut, which sped up those who fished nearby by twenty-five percent.

As trees near the settlement were cut down, more room was created for buildings. Jason made his roadbuilder make crude dirt paths throughout the village. Much like a modern city, Jason created blocks. Ah. His resources were capped. I need to upgrade the storage building. Almost every building could be upgraded. Now that resources were flowing in smoothly, and the need for more storage was growing apparent, he spent a hefty sum to upgrade his storage facility to tier two. Now it could store a total of two thousand resources, four times as much as before.

The sun fell over the horizon, dying the night black. He could order his villagers to work through the night, but that would lower morale, among other detriments. Plus, there was no need at the moment. He paused all tasks, whereupon his villagers made their way home and fell asleep.

Jason immediately sped up time as much as he could. Instead of waiting, he inspected his territory. The land was surrounded by a grey fog, which he couldn't see through or pa.s.s. His units could, however. If they did, the fog would be swept away, allowing Jason a wider range of influence. That reminds me, I need to get a scout or two.

Jason recalled the harvests of the day. He figured that his kingdom had to be the most developed in history after a single day. He acquired a total of forty villagers, set up a fis.h.i.+ng hut near a river, and upgraded his storehouse to tier two. The only thing that could have made things better was finding a quarry. Jason shrugged. I can't be greedy.

A cry from Tank came from above, followed by the image of armor. Almost simultaneously, Jason's stomach rumbled. He rubbed Tank's head. "Alright, let's fly down and eat."

Jason landed on a boulder and sat down. He pulled out a few pieces of c.r.a.ppy equipment and tossed them on the ground. Unlike a typical turtle, Tank jumped off Jason's head and landed next to the equipment. She opened her mouth and sucked in, whereupon a wave of grey energy flew into her mouth. The equipment disintegrated into dust.

Jason chuckled to himself as he ate a sandwich. As he ate, a wild deer wandered over, munching on some gra.s.s. Tank immediately growled threateningly, but the deer was unfazed. Jason explained. "Tank, we can't interact on this floor. The inhabitants of this world can't see us."

As if she didn't believe Jason, she walked up to the deer. By chance, it just so happened that the deer stepped on Tank. That was when something miraculous happened. The deer's foot pa.s.sed right through Tank's body. It was like they existed in separate dimensions. Jason chuckled. "See?"

Tank let out a curious squeak before returning to her food. When they both finished, Jason picked up Tank and flew into the sky. Soon, the sun would be rising, which would signal the start of another day. Jason planned to challenge himself. He wanted to annihilate the first monster wave without a single casualty. He figured that n.o.body else had done so before.

As his villagers woke up, they began their tasks. Time pa.s.sed, and soon a week had gone by.