"Damn..." Ethan gasped, his eyes widening at the numbers glowing on the screen. "System, are you sure this isn’t way too cheap?"

[Hmm... I can multiply the price by 100x, if you want.]

"No, no, I’m fine with it!" Ethan replied immediately, almost choking on his words.

Without batting an eye, he selected a thousand-hectare plot of arable land and paid the twenty thousand gold coins for it.

That done, he took a few steps back and, with a quick wave of his hand, signaled the farmers beside him to do the same.

[Magical vein detected! Do you wish to connect it to your new structure?]

Ethan didn’t think twice; he simply pressed "yes."

In the next second, the world around him seemed to reorganize before his eyes.

The empty lots and basalt streets rearranged themselves at high speed, sliding over one another like pieces of a living puzzle.

Rocks shifted on their own, dark earth burst up from beneath, and within seconds, an area of just over one million square meters took shape before them.

In theory, as imposing as it seemed, that area was too small for a farming zone intended to sustain an entire city. Even under the most ideal conditions, it could barely feed a population of more than ten thousand people.

In practice, however, with all the system’s bonuses applied, the amount of resources produced there would be absurd—too massive even for Goldenveil’s current warehouses.

On top of that, Goldenveil’s forests remained fertile, and even without livestock, meat was never in short supply thanks to the hundreds of hunters and fishermen who worked daily.

With this new field added to the rest, Ethan would finally find himself facing something rare: a food surplus large enough to sell to Ron.

And best of all: every crop that came from that soil would be a magical harvest. This type of merchandise was highly coveted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie across the rest of the continent, especially in the rich central empires.

Satisfied, Ethan continued to watch as the field expanded before him.

At the center of it all, a structure began to rise from the ground, stone by stone—a tool shed that would also serve as a dining hall and temporary storage for the harvest.

A stone road cut straight through the fields, connecting the building to the main road.

Amid the dark, fertile soil, irrigation systems spread out like fine veins. The pumps installed inside the central structure activated almost instantly, ensuring fresh water would never run short in the region.

After a few more moments, everything was finally ready.

A field of black soil, crisscrossed by carefully laid-out irrigation channels, now covered an area of one thousand hectares. At its heart stood a sturdy four-story building.

Ethan smiled with satisfaction, feeling the magical energy from the Goldenveil vein—now connected to that basalt road—flowing silently underground and causing the land’s fertility to skyrocket.

He turned to the farmers, about four hundred and fifty in total, almost all of them women.

They stood transfixed, their eyes wide and shining, brimming with excitement as they gazed at the newly created structure.

"What are you waiting for? Start planting," Ethan said, clapping his hands lightly to snap them out of their trance. "All the seeds from the old warehouse have already been moved to that big house, and I’m going to put a few more there."

With that, he opened all the free tickets he had—thousands of them.

In return, dozens of metric tons of the most varied seeds appeared in his system’s inventory, along with thousands of other items that he would put to good use in the future.

Without hesitation, Ethan discarded the low-quality ones, keeping only the roughly five metric tons of superior seeds, which were immediately stored in the warehouse.

Shortly after, having discussed some salary adjustments with the farm manager and raised the farmers’ wages by a substantial margin, Ethan set off.

Soon, with the formation of Ron’s chamber of commerce and the official opening of the port of Goldenveil, he would be able to prepare the city to become more sustainable, moving beyond its current dependence on green fairy wine.

Shaking his head, Ethan finally left the fields behind, his eyes briefly turning to the balance of his wealth.

Now, he had just over twenty thousand gold coins left.

He didn’t mind all those expenses much. After all, at that very moment, he still had sixty premium gacha tickets.

With a slight sigh, he quickened his pace, crossing the streets of Goldenveil toward the guard barracks, which, as always, stood proudly in the heart of the intermediate zone.

The moment he appeared at the end of the street, the two guards posted at the entrance stood at attention in a respectful salute, drawing a slight smile from him. He nodded in return and entered the building.

With the population crisis over, the place now exuded order and discipline, occupied by just over 1,400 guards. Another hundred stood ready to join the force, forming the third cohort of the Goldenveil army.

Soon, they would be assigned a captain and sent to the Hell Soldier’s Portal for training.

In about a month, Ethan intended to begin the expansion of Goldenveil, right after the celebrations that would follow the announcement of Alice’s pregnancy.

Resuming his march, Ethan made his way through the corridors until he finally reached the Goldenveil Guard’s forges.

Inside, ten dwarves were hard at work. The orange flames of the furnaces danced and crackled, the rhythmic clang of hammers striking steel filled the chamber, and the heavy scent of heated metal hung thick in the warm air.

Ethan paid them only a brief moment’s attention before his gaze was drawn to three wooden mannequins at the back of the room, each clad in powerful steel armor.

The moment he saw them, a smile spread across his lips.

This was a plan he had been nurturing ever since recruiting Garrick, the SS-rank dwarf blacksmith: an entire army equipped with standardized, mass-produced armor.