First off, I’m relieved I didn’t have to spend influence points to unlock them. According to the interface, the only free one was the town hall.

  Second, the gold price seems in line with the human market. With 150 gold coins you can buy a large house to live in a human city that isn’t the capital or one of the more expensive ones. So 100 coins for a building that serves as both forge and smithy, with the furnace, anvil, and tools included—that’s a pretty good price. Because if I tell the system to place it inside a cave, it won’t build walls; but if I ask for it in, say, the nearby forest, I imagine it would construct the whole structure.

  I also like that I get to choose between bankrupting myself in gold or providing construction materials. The other option—influence points—is ridiculously expensive right now, since I only have 179 of them.

  When I read that upgrading the forge-smithy requires 1,200 stone bricks, I want to scream.

  No way in hell.

  Ronan cannot see this.

  But then I notice the stone-block option, which, being larger, means I’d need fewer—and it wouldn’t take much longer to make a block than a brick.

  Wait, what am I thinking?

  The goblins have to do it. Or the undead.

  Apparently, I must have reacted too strongly, because when I look up, all the goblins are staring at me. I smile at them like nothing happened and go back to what I was doing.

  The unlock costs for buildings vary. Some are 10 influence points, 12, 20... I don’t have a ton, but that much seems doable.

  So, let’s see what buildings I actually have available. I tap the second option on the settlement control interface.

  Hmm... interesting. I see there’s a quarry and that’s where stone is made.

  Perfect.

  Because there are more useful buildings, but this one—the quarry—has to be built no matter what. To get the idea out of Ronan’s head that I’m the only one who can make bricks.

  Let’s see... it unlocks with 20 influence points and builds with either 100 gold coins, or 1 gold coin, 10 logs, and 800 stone bricks, or 1 gold coin, 10 logs, and 150 stone blocks, or 200 influence points.

  That last option, which would be the simplest, is impossible since it requires a total of 220 points and I only have 179. I can pay 20 to unlock it, but then I’d still need either the gold or the materials.

  Well, I decide I’m going to finish looking at my options and then figure out how to build the quarry.