Create core tower? Is this another one of system gimmicks? Am I supposed to go around and collect the rocks for the sake of stacking them on top of this dome created by the core?

"Blop!'

"Stronghold creation tool can be bought with only two hundred attribute points!"

…

Are you for real now? Do you have any fucking decency and composture in your code or whatever makes you up?

"Blop!"

"This system consists only of the Godly, Divine, Heavenly phrases of ascended wisdom, making up for the absolute, irrefutable and true logic that guides the system actions!"

Hola, boy! That's a completely new level of bragging! But well, thinking about it, even if the way that Bonger helped me with my current problem and his constant nagging and unnecessary advices are starting to annoy me, there is no way to belittle benefits that it brought to me.

While I can't care less about being unable to use those decorations, there is no denying that if this hibernation chamber thing will prove to be capable of saving Eve, even in the long run only, then I think I would've to change my attitude towards it.

Just like I need resources to grow, maybe the system does need my attribute points as well for some reason? It's not like I know how and why it was made in the first place!

Okay then, do your worst.

"Blop!"

"Deducting 200 points!"

"Launching the Stronghold creation tool!"

In a familiar stutter of my consciousness, I suddenly found myself floating in an empty space, with a load of windows surrounding half of my vision. Looking down, I could see a vast, empty plot of land, extending all the way to the mist-covered horizon.

Taking a look at the biggest window that appeared at the very top, I saw various models of typical buildings found in the fantasy genre. From the castles, strongholds, dungeons and towers, all the way to the floating cities, subdimensions and bunkers.

I guess it wasn't pure fantasy in the end.

At first, I thought that once picked, I would have to stick with a single template, but after careful deliberation and picking the tower in the end, I saw a big button in the upper right corner, slowly flashing in red as if taunting me for all the hard thinking I did before making my choice.

As for why I decided to go with the tower, it was actually just a stupid reason.

No matter how much I thought about it, all kinds of designs have their pros and cons. Even if I could pick something easier to defend, I could only gauge it with my own perception, unable to figure out what kind of abilities my future enemies would have.

So while I officially will use the reason of good vantage point for observation, in reality, I was just tempted to live in a proper Mage's Tower!

But even this wasn't given to me just like that.

As soon as I picked the template, a new set of window appeared, with a big, bolded count in black at the bottom of my vision.

Bonger, what the hell is this counter?

"Blop!"

"Since the entirety of the stronghold is created with mana, there is only so much that the core can currently handle. Upon further developments of the core, the limit will increase allowing for ongoing modification and upgrades."

As if I was going to doubt this word, the count that started as 257, changed into 261 as soon as Bonger finished its sentence!

"Blop!"

"This update was done manually. To update the current limit by yourself, the host needs to reboot the tool."

I promise I'm too used to this to be annoyed at how strange does this system work. Is automatic update so hard to implement? Or is there something else going on?

But no matter what, if by the time I entered this place and had this talk, the limit increased by a four… I didn't even want to think how big this place would be later on! Considering how all the system tools employed time flow modification that allowed me to spend way more time inside, it would be for the best to wait outside for the core to finish fully loading and only then bother with creating a stronghold!

While there was a lot of good points for this kind of approach, there was just as many problems caused by it. But all of them didn't matter when the life of Eve was placed on the scale.

After getting used to the various editing tools, I scrapped most of the tower to save on the points. With only the bare foundation remaining and the base floor, I get into work.

First thing first, I need a safe place for the hibernation chamber.

Unless I find something that will entirely change my concept of saving Eve, this tower will be a place of her rest for as long as it will take me to reach a level of power and capabilities to fix her body on the spot.

Since I was actually worried about the backslash from the local inhabitants of this place, I had to factor the possibility of actually dying into how I was going to protect Eve even after that possibility.

Doing my best to recall all the tricks that the game level designers used to confuse players and hide various secrets in all the games that I have played on the earth, I went with a simple design of two basement levels, fake foundation, hidden level for the hibernation chamber, housing for the core just below and the real foundation holding it all in place.

While each underground floor cost me around five points, when I moved back above the ground, the price tag on the new levels changed back to one.

I guess mage towers are supposed to be high, not deep. Even when thinking about the energy required to form and maintain something, doing something underground required the spell caster to at first, remove everything there before actually forming anything!

Before I even got to build up, I quickly took a peek at the energy count, only for my imaginary jaw to drop.

With five underground levels, the cost should be about twenty-five points, but it already reached two hundred fifty!

Running through the logs registered in one of the windows in the background, I discovered that this hibernation chamber itself cost two hundred and twenty-five points!

While it ached me to see most of my opportunities and plans go away with this kind of expenditure, I didn't pay it any heed in the end.

This entire tower is just a place for me to keep Eve's body safe and sound for as long as it will take me to heal her. Even if it means turning this into a rundown shack, I won't budge!

Gritting my teeth, I played around the various options and ended up with barely three-story high tower, with a flat roof on top. I couldn't care less about potential attacks from flying creatures since I intended to lead my warfare… from the ground!

With only eight points to freely spend, I could only buy some basic reinforcement and protective formations for the ground level, making the tower far more fragile to be used as any kind of stronghold.

My only hope lay in those hidden floors.

As long as no humans would find this place, I think I was safe to assume that no beast would be able to ever find out about my beloved one being hidden underground!