The next day was a rest day at the Academy.
Morning sunlight streamed through the windows into the dining room, where a long table was set with steaming hot breakfast.
Leo yawned as he shuffled in, flopping down into the seat at the head of the table. Two obvious dark circles hung beneath his eyes.
Irina, sitting next to him, was sipping her milk in small mouthfuls. Seeing his appearance, her movement paused, and her amber eyes instantly filled with a scrutinizing look.
That gaze seemed to say: “Confess and you’ll get leniency, resist and it’ll be severe.”
Leo felt uncomfortable under her stare, hurriedly picked up a slice of bread, cleared his throat twice, and tried to explain.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.” He spoke righteously.
“Last night was just a pure mana circulation therapy. Elvie and Livia were helping me recover the Spirit Power I spent in the ranking test. Totally innocent.”
He sounded dead serious, as if he truly believed it himself.
Irina blinked and showed a sweet smile, then lowered her head to continue drinking her milk.
But Leo clearly read a line from the slight upward curve of her lips.
“I don’t believe you for a second!”
Doomed!
This girl had learned to be sly—she no longer mocked him directly, now she played with micro-expressions.
Leo sighed inwardly and decided not to resist anymore. He could sense that Irina had silently made up her mind.
From now on, he absolutely could not let any more “nighttime activities” happen when she wasn’t around.
After breakfast, the group headed out of the town in grand fashion.
Butler Alfred led the way in front, with Leo and Irina walking in the middle, and behind them trailed Kaiden, Xia, and the rest of the management.
They arrived at a newly planned New Plot.
The land here was flat and open, as large as several football fields. Around the New Plot, a dense crowd of people stood.
They were hundreds of new town residents and vagrants who had just arrived.
With their families in tow, dressed in rags, their faces bore the fatigue and numbness of long-term displacement. At this moment, they looked at the New Plot, at Leo and his party walking over, and their eyes brimmed with complex emotions.
There was anticipation, anxiety, and a loss about the future.
They had heard that this young Lord was going to solve their housing problems today.
But… so many people, such a vast New Plot—how long would it take to build houses to live in? Months? Or a year?
As the crowd watched anxiously, Leo walked to the very center of the New Plot.
He looked around at all the eyes focused on him and cleared his throat.
Then, under everyone’s gaze, he raised his hand.
A crisp snap of his fingers.
“Snap.”
“Alright, it’s showtime.”
He added mental background music for himself.
The next second, something strange happened!
“Rumble—”
The earth began to tremble slightly, as if some giant beast was about to burst forth.
Centered on Leo, twenty gigantic ochre magic circles lit up on the New Plot, shooting beams of light into the sky!
The onlooking townsfolk gasped in surprise, subconsciously backing away a few steps, their faces full of fear and confusion.
What… was about to happen?
Before they could react, one by one, massive figures suddenly erupted from the ground inside the magic circles!
“Roar!”
Fifteen earth elementals, each over three meters tall and entirely made of stone and soil, let out muffled growls and lined up in three neat rows.
And in front of them stood five even larger Earth Guardians, their rock armor thicker and their presence more imposing.
Twenty behemoths, like a silent army, stood motionless upon the New Plot.
The sight was so visually shocking that it was beyond words.
The whole world seemed to quiet down in that instant.
All the onlookers, whether newcomers or long-time residents, were dumbstruck.
Their mouths hung open, eyes wide as saucers, minds utterly blank and unable to process what they saw.
Was… this magic?
Was this the Lord’s power?!
“Holy crap…”
Irina, standing among the crowd, couldn’t help but mutter a soft curse.
She moved closer to Leo, lowering her voice to complain.
“Are you showing off at home because you didn’t get enough attention at the Academy?”
“And is your mana just blowing in with the wind? Doesn’t it pain you to use it like this?”
Leo glanced at her, the corners of his mouth rising into a teasing grin.
“Isn’t it simple?”
“Besides,” he pointed to his own temple, “high Spirit Power lets you do whatever you want. If you were a summoner, you could do this too.”
Finished, he ignored the main character lady, now clearly a little jealous, and focused on issuing orders with his mind.
“Begin!”
With a single command, the twenty elementals moved at once.
The scene was so spectacular it made one’s scalp tingle.
Five earth elementals per group, each stomped to the edge of the New Plot. They swung their massive rocky fists like the most efficient pile drivers, “thud thud thud,” leveling the foundations.
Another five earth elementals turned and lumbered toward the distant Quarry. Their task was to transport huge stones that had already been mined.
The remaining five earth elementals dug into the soil on the spot, mixing it with water, and began preparing the most basic adhesive.
But the five Earth Guardians drew the most attention.
Standing on the marked foundations, they pressed their hands to the ground, their mouths letting out deep, resonant hums.
“Buzz—”
Ochre magic energy flashed brightly.
The soil and rubble on the ground seemed to be manipulated by invisible hands, shaping, condensing, rising up!
Thick walls rose from the ground at a speed visible to the naked eye!
The whole scene was like a construction site running at ten times normal speed.
Soil flew, rocks soared, and the outlines of stone houses sprang up within just a dozen minutes.
The watching townsfolk were already completely dazed.
From initial shock, to disbelief, to numbness.
Was this… a Divine Miracle?
Who but God could possess such power?
Someone was the first to react. Their knees buckled, and with a “thud,” they knelt on the ground, facing Leo with all their might, crying out at the top of their lungs:
“The Lord is the God descended! He has come to save us!”
This cry was like a spark in a powder keg.
“Divine Miracle! This is a Divine Miracle!”
“Long live the Lord!”
“Thank God! Thank the Lord!”
“Waaah… we finally have a home…”
The next instant, a tidal wave of cheers and sobs shook the skies, hundreds of people dropped to their knees in unison, prostrating before Leo, their eyes ablaze with fervent worship.
Leo was caught off guard by this sudden turn, his cheeks even felt a little hot.
Wait… guys, don’t do this…
I’m just an ordinary summoner with a side gig as an infrastructure maniac.
Stop shouting or I’m going to float away—I still want to be a salted fish!
He was screaming inwardly, but on the surface, he had to keep up the mysterious and profound lordly demeanor.
The town’s Carpenters and Stonemasons, who had rushed over after hearing the news, snapped out of their shock at this moment. Looking at the stone houses with walls and roofs already formed, they trembled with excitement, grabbed their tools, and rushed forward without another word.
“Quick! Leave space for doors and windows!”
“We’ll reinforce the roof structure!”
“These walls are perfect! We just need to do some fine finishing!”
On top of the rough foundations laid by the earth elementals and Earth Guardians, these skilled craftsmen began their detailed work. The efficiency was more than ten times higher than usual!
Butler Alfred held a piece of sheepskin, excitedly calculating on the side, muttering, “So fast… so fast! What was supposed to take at least three months… Maybe… Maybe it’ll all be done in three to five days!”
Irina stared blankly at the miraculous, bustling scene before her, feeling her worldview get refreshed yet again.
This was no longer simple combat ability.
This was productivity!
Productivity so great it could reshape the world—a Divine Miracle-level productivity!
She suddenly thought of her “Protagonist System.”
The system always sent her on quests: go fight this, kill that, stop some conspiracy, save someone.
But compared to what Leo was doing…
She suddenly felt that her “Protagonist System”—with all its fighting and killing—was kind of petty.
He was already using magic to change people’s lives and push forward civilization.
She was still in the starter village, fighting mobs for experience and equipment.
The gap was simply enormous.
Seeing that the construction was well underway and needed no more of his attention, Leo handed over command of the site to the thrilled Alfred.
He turned and grabbed the wrist of the still-dazed Irina, sneaking away from the frenzied crowd.
“Come on, Miss Protagonist.”
Irina was startled by his tug and snapped out of her daze. “Huh? Where are we going?”
Leo didn’t look back, his voice tinged with a hint of laughter.
“Time to solve the next century-old problem—how to make money.”