Ben opened the system Building Menu and scanned through the newly unlocked structures.

Under the [Defense] category [Wooden Wall], [Wooden Tower], [Wooden Gatehouse], [Stone Block Wall], [Stone Block Tower], and [Stone Block Gatehouse] were now unlocked.

It seemed that the walls, towers and gatehouses did not cost gold to build, he just needed enough wood or stone to complete the construction.

Under the [Infrastructure] category [Dirt Roads] and [Stone Paved Roads] had unlocked and they were also free of charge, as long as he had the right amount of resources to make the road.

The [Industry] category now offered [Stone Quarry], [Lumber Mill], and [Mine] which cost 200 gold coins each plus resources to build them.

Further, down the list he scanned the [Food] category and found the [Farm], [Berry Farm], [Ranch], and [Orchard], were now unlocked at a cost of 100 gold coins each. They also required wood and stone to build them.

The [Healthcare] category provided a [Small Clinic] for 100 gold coins with a stone and wood resource requirement. This Small Clinic seemed to heal minor injuries and did not need a doctor.

Anyone who visited a Small Clinic would be healed by having the clinic cast a minor healing spell on them.

Ben investigated the [Workshops] category next which seems to have buildings mainly responsible for crafting items.

Presently they were all still locked but they provided a description of what was needed to unlock some of them. Each workshop cost 200 gold coins each and required various resources or additional built structures to unlock them.

For [Housing] not that he needed it yet because he was all alone, Ben found the [Wooden Shack] was unlocked. The more advanced houses needed additional resources he was not yet producing and/or additional structures to build them.

Lastly, under the [Landscape & Decorations] category, he found options to make parks, fountains, gardens, and stone statues.

The Landscape & Decorations category provided an incredible custom design menu. If he were to choose a location in the interface window an in-depth landscaping/designing program would show him the surrounding area and allow him to place flowers, bushes, trees, fences, walkways, and many other options to make a custom park or garden look exactly how he wanted it.

These custom design options also allowed him to make custom designed statues of just about anything he could imagine and the same went for the fountains. He could make a fountain into any shape and even add layered tiers so it would trickle down from one level to the next.

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Ben now decided to walk down into the lower valley and try out the [Food] category options. With gold coins being tight he decided to only build a Vegetable Farm for 100g and a Cattle Ranch for 100g.

[Farm]: Can grow: all vegetables, wheat, rice fields, oats, barley, hops, spices, licorice plant, peppermint plant, peanuts, and fish ponds. [Can also grow: Victus grains and vegetables]

[Ranch]: Can raise: Sheep, Cattle, Pig, Goat, Chicken, Rabbit, Turkey, Deer, Alpaca and Victus native animals. [Possible to produce hides, furs, meat, milk, animal fat, eggs, feathers, antlers, horns, sheep wool, alpaca wool, hair and many other resources depending on the animal chosen]

Once, he placed them near one another Ben took a look around at the rough terrain surrounding the area. Even if, the area was fairly flat it was still an untouched wilderness. The surrounding area was covered with rocks of varying sizes and the vegetation ranged in size from short grass to large bushes.

It wasn't difficult to walk around, but Ben was constantly forced to side-step some obstacle or another to get from point A to point B.

Using the [Road] tool he marked out a road that ran in between the Farm and Ranch. It then continued north to wrap around the plateau and climb up the only narrow incline that led to the top. This way, he would now have a smooth dirt road that started from the door of his keep and wound down the plateau to the farm and ranch in the lower valley.

'Now I won't have to bushwhack through all the ground cover and rocks around here when I want to head down into this valley.' Ben thought as he closed the Roads menu.

With only 200 gold coins left, Ben decided to buy a few pieces of basic furniture for now. He bought a small bed, a table, and a chair for 10 gold coins. If Ben had bought this furniture earlier in the city they may have cost him half of this amount.

It was beginning to get near the end of the day so he made a small fire pit outside the keep and began to prepare dinner with the supplies he bought in the city and the meat he hunted on the way here. After eating his dinner Ben went up to the third floor of the keep and placed his bed in the far corner along with his table and chair beside it.

He laid down on his new bed and began to cultivate.

Ben, was planning to head down into the vast southern forest and hunt magical beasts so that he could sell them and their cores to replenish his money, but he was not confident in his strength just yet.

Swallowing one of his cultivation pills. He made himself comfortable and began to circulate his Qi. Out here in the wilderness, there was nothing to distract him and he could cultivate all night without worry.

When, he opened his eyes the sun had already begun peeking over the top of the forest treeline to the east.

'Time to check on what type of progress I made.'

[Notice] [You have advanced in cultivation! Cultivation Stage Two: Level Three!]

"Status!"

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[STATUS]

[Host]: Ben King

[System Level]: 2

[Strength]: 26

[Agility]: 17

[Stamina]: 27

[Intelligence]: 18

[Wisdom]: 17

[Vitality]: 21

[Charisma]: 19

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[SKILLS]

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[Running, Level 3]

[Spriniting, Level 4]

[Enhanced Hearing, Level 5]

[Sword Proficiency, Level 3]

[Hand to Hand Combat Level 1]

[Pain Tolerance Level 2]

[Cameleon, Level 1]

[Silent Walk, Level 1]

[Archery, Level 5]

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[CULTIVATION STAGE]

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[Cultivation Base]: [Stage Two, Level Three]

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[Cultivation Techniques]

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[Immortal Strengthening Technique: Stage 2: Level 3]

[Whirlwind Maneuver, Level 4]

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Just like this, Ben continued to cultivate for the next week. He would go down and check on the Warehouse daily to see how much wood, stone, vegetables, beef, and cowhides had accumulated.

It was a great thing that the Ranch didn't even need a butcher. It even had options on what to keep and discard from the cow carcass. The current default settings were set to only store the meat and hides. Ben had no present need to save the bones, organs, or innards so he kept the default options on for the time being.

Using the rest of his cheap cultivation pills, Ben trained non stop for seven days. When he opened his notification icon at the end of the week, he found one stating that he had finally broken through to the next stage.

[Notice] [You have advanced in cultivation! Cultivation Stage Three: Level one!]

'I'm starting to get a little stir crazy sitting around here all day, I think it is time for a little adventure. It would be nice to also have some gold coins to continue expanding around here.'

Looking through his inventory, Ben found he had all his camping gear and goods he bought last week still on him. He also decided to bring along a good amount of the butchered beef steaks and mixed vegetables his farm and ranch produced.

He was unsure of how long he may be out in the forest so he made sure to prepare enough supplies to last him a couple weeks.

Before leaving he also decided to bring along some of the wood planks and stone blocks from the warehouse. He wanted to have the extra resources to set up a temporary shelter if he felt unsafe sleeping in his tent.

Ben followed the road down into the valley and walked past his farm area. While he was headed toward the forest enjoying the ease of travel along his new dirt road, Ben decided to extend the road from the Farm and Ranch area to the Lumber Mill in the forest to the south.

The new flat dirt road made traveling through the rugged terrain so much easier and it was so smooth he could even ride a cart or carriage from the keep to the Lumber Mill if he had one.

When, he began to think about carriages it put an idea in his head. This world seemed to only have simple horse-drawn carts.

While he referred to them as a horse, they were a smaller shaggy version of a beast that looked like it could have been an primitive unevolved version of a horse from Earth.

There were also another weird beast used which looked like a cross between a horse and a moose.

If Ben designed an enclosed carriage to be pulled along by these creatures it could become a great opportunity to fill his pockets with a few gold coins.

There is only one problem with his plan. It takes money to make money so that it would need to be shelved for a later date.

Stopping the new dirt road right next to the Lumber Mill, Ben then opened his inventory and equipped his chain-mail tunic, sword, bow, and quiver. Activating Chameleon and Silent Walk, he melted into the surrounding vegetation.

Opening his map Ben began to plot a route that led him deeper into the uncharted forest that had claimed so many scouting parties from the surrounding countries over the years.