Chapter 3: It’s Recommended To Give It A Try

<<Make a village here?>>

Such words suddenly appeared at the edge of my vision.

“Eh? What was that just now?”

“…Luke-sama? (That look, no, it can’t be that he saw the face I made, right!? No, no, no, anything but that. If he saw that wretched face I made, he’d surely come to hate me…hmm!?)”

I didn’t know why Millia looked like she was panicking, but even more mysterious than that was the reason why those words appeared.

“Because it’s possible to make a village here.”

Wha!? The words changed. Is it possible that it read my thoughts?

“Let’s see…just who are you?”

<<Your guide to using your Gift, [Rural Development].>>

It answered my question! But a guide for my Gift?

“I’ve never heard of such a thing though…”

“Luke-sama…? Are you…talking to yourself? Has your cruel circumstance made you go…? Luke-sama, there is no need for you to worry about a thing! For I am here by your side!”

“No, I’m fine! Completely fine! It’s just that it seems like my Gift has activated.”

I hurriedly explain as much as I could to the worried Millia in front of me.

“Let’s see… if you’re a guide, do you know what my Gift does?”

<<Just as its name might imply, it allows you make and develop a village. This place has no owner, so it’s possible to make a rural village here.>>

It would seem like the reason why my Gift hasn’t activated before was that I was in a place that already had an owner.

“Hmm, I still don’t really get it, but…I guess I should give it a try. [Yes, make a village here].”

In the next moment, the ground beneath me became perfectly leveled. This was the case within the 100m-radius circular area around me. Beyond that though, everything stayed the same.

<<The village has been made. Would you like to check the Status of the village?>>

Status?

I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I agreed anyways.

When I did, words appeared in my vision.

========================================

Luke’s Village

Village Level: 1
Village Points: 50 (10 points are gained per day)
Number of Villagers: 0
Village Skills: None

========================================

“What are these?”

<<The current Status of your village.>>

“What’s this ‘village level’?”

<<The current level of the village. By gathering a certain number of villagers, the level of the village will rise.>>

“What about this ‘village points’?”

<<These points can be spent to install various facilities in the village. You currently gain 10 points per day. This amount depends on the current number of villagers as well as the village level. By improving those values, the number of points earned per day will increase.>>

“Facilities?”

<<Would you like to check the facilities that you can install at the moment?>>

I nodded and another set of words appeared in my vision.

===================================

Shed                     20
Flower bed               20
Watchtower               20
Storehouse               20
Earthwork                20
Earthen wall             20
Canal                    20
Field                    20
Water well               20
Small house              50

===================================

“…what is this?”

<<The list of facilities you can build right now. Each facility has its village points cost next to it. More facilities will be available by increasing the village level.>>

It was just explained to me, but I still wasn’t sure what it all meant. I mean, spend points to build houses and fields? How does that work?

There was no doubt that these facilities were necessary to my mission, but this just sounded too good to be true to me…

<<It is recommended to try it out instead of needlessly overthinking it.>>

That’s a little too forceful, don’t you think!?

“B-but fine. If you say I should try it, then I’ll try it. Here goes nothing.”

I scanned the list again. Not all items cost the same.

While a hut would only cost 20 points to make, a small house required 50 points.

If I were to build a house, it would consume all the points I had at the moment.

So, for the sake of this experiment, I decided to make a shed instead.

And so, I selected where it would be built and then just prayed that it would work.

<<20 village points will be consumed to build a shed.>>

In the next moment, a small wooden infrastructure appeared.

““EH??””

I and Millia shouted in surprise.

“It, it really was built…?”

It was a shed, so it was rather small.

I tried to peek inside, but there was nothing at all in there. There was no bed or any furniture, there wasn’t even a single window.

Even so, now we didn’t have to worry about wind or rain so much.

If we tried to build this ourselves, it would doubtlessly taken a lot of time and effort. Plus, it might not have turned out to be as good.

“Luke-sama, is this…”

“…Yeah, it’s somehow due to my Gift.”

My Gift, [Village Building], might actually be useful.