Ethan walked over to the empty plot next to the Tree of Life, activating his instant-construction ability with a slight wave of his hand.

As always, endless options appeared before him—more than twenty thousand of them. Some cost mere tens of gold coins, while others ran into the billions.

Without wasting any time, he began configuring the filters, narrowing the numbers down first to a few hundred, then to fewer than ten.

His gaze naturally fell on three specific options. The cheapest cost one hundred thousand gold coins, while the most expensive reached into the hundreds of millions.

One of them caught his attention right away. It resembled the current Goldenveil Wall, an item whose core had been fragmented, leaving its power greatly diminished.

Still, it was an incredible structure, and even better: it appeared to be Arwen’s old cathedral.

Seeing it there left Ethan visibly pleased, his eyes scanning the status screen with growing interest.

[Name: The Eternal Cathedral of the Fallen Priestess.

Description: An elven cathedral from a distant, glorious past, once the center of the cult of life, death, and beauty, in an era preceding the formation of the Cult of the Nine. It served as the home of the first high elf and was destroyed by greenskins in the burning of the first Tree of Life.

This is a fragmented version, containing one of the five fragments of the structure’s core. Gathering more fragments will increase its effect.

It has a total area of 100,000 square meters and can accommodate dozens of priestesses, as well as hundreds of paladins.

A paladin fortress is embedded within the cathedral, with a capacity for two hundred paladins. An order of paladins will be created automatically.

A payment of 1,000 gold coins per paladin can be made to have paladins summoned by the system to protect it. 100 gold coins for second-stage paladins.

(This option is available because of the subordinate "Arwen." The order of paladins will be completely loyal to her.)

All paladins will be female elves with Rank A talent or higher.

You can recruit a maximum of twenty third-stage paladins.

You can build outer fortresses to expand the Order of Paladins even further.

Other cathedrals and churches that also had bases of this Order of Paladins may, with Arwen as a subordinate, allow for the recruitment of more paladins.

Price: 100,000 gold coins

Effects: +500 prestige, +40% population morale and loyalty (National Effect), +40% population fervor (National Effect), +25% fertility (National Effect), +25% vitality for the entire population (National Effect).]

The smile on Ethan’s lips widened even further.

That was simply too wonderful!

Not only did it come with a national effect—one that applied to the entire territory of Goldenveil as a nation, not just as a city—but it also included those paladins right in the package.

That meant even Windmere would be covered by the benefits.

A third-stage warrior for a mere thousand gold coins—considering their talent alone—was already an absolutely cheap price.

"One hundred thirty-eight thousand gold coins..." Ethan scratched his chin, doing the math in his head.

Given the level of talent those women possessed, it wouldn’t be long before even the second-stage ones climbed to the third.

It was a steep price, but with Ron returning as early as the following month, he was certain it would be worth every coin.

After all, there were still three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins sitting in his vault.

With a faint smile on his lips, he calmly turned his gaze toward a figure approaching with soft steps.

It was Arwen, having only just risen from her sleep.

Her face still carried a subtle sheen of moisture, glistening softly in the light, and her full lips curved into a sensual smile.

She was no longer wearing the pure white dress from before. In its place, an elegant green gown now draped her body, flowing in soft folds all the way down to her heels.

Her full breasts were within a provocative neckline—though far more modest than her previous one—the fabric contrasting strikingly against her pale skin as it hugged every curve, as though stitched specifically for her form.

"You haven’t forgotten our bet, have you? My lord..." she said.

Ethan let out a short chuckle.

"No." His voice dropped, and without hesitation, he paid the 138,000 gold coins for the cathedral.

For a brief moment, Arwen, who had maintained a relaxed and only mildly curious expression up until then, flinched, her eyes widening little by little.

That was...

Before her very eyes, the vast expanse of land where Ethan stood began to transform.

The terrain reshaped itself into something new, while the surrounding streets readjusted on their own, accommodating the new structure.

The first thing to take form were the expansive gardens at the front. A wall of flowers and foliage in pure green rose elegantly, enclosed by a gate as white as freshly fallen snow.

Behind it, three statues sprang from the earth, beautiful and majestic, depicting the most perfect representations of the goddesses of life, death, and beauty, sculpted by the hands of a woman who had seen them in person.

Beyond the statues, the main building took shape with intricate architecture.

White walls adorned with greenish elven runic patterns curved gloriously upward, and a double gate blending gold, green, and black sealed the entrance.

The cathedral’s rooftops unfolded with equal elegance, layered at various heights that were at once strange, unique, and harmonious, never veering into minimalism.

Two towering spires climbed from the rear corners of the cathedral, and to its right, a second structure took form—clearly a military building, its architecture no less intricate.

"I think I won..." Ethan smiled the moment the structure was complete, his gaze settling on Arwen.

She stood frozen in place, her eyes wide with astonishment and disbelief.

"Yes... it looks like I lost..." Arwen finally said, a bitter smile playing on her lips.

Her gaze turned to Ethan, just in time to see his lips drawing closer to hers.

[Image of Goldenveil’s Cathedral is in the comments section of this paragraph. It was generated with Chat gpt and is imperfect, but it closely matches what I was imagining when I described it.

(The statues of the goddesses are right in the center of the main garden, but I decided to remove them because, well, they don’t represent what they actually look like.)]