City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread by Thomas F

[Subject Gained: Den of Moonlight Merriment]

[Legacy Skill: Visage of Smoke]

[Skill Change: Visage of Smoke – Masks of Selves]

The moment I finished. The text appeared in front of me. I have gained the subject.

I could feel it and see it.

Vanis’s Tavern has become part of the Velvet Garden. Its official name is Den of Moonlight Merriment; it was House of Moonlight Merriment before it merged with Mariha’s Inn.

I focused on it, and I could sense everything, like I do with Velvet Garden.

I activated Eyes of Domain, and instantly, I could see everything—the people, the staff, Carla, sitting in front of Thorn with a smile on her face.

‘Congratulations,’ she said as she felt my gaze.

Now, it has become a subject of Velvet Garden. The distance didn’t matter; she could talk to me. Like she could in the Velvet Garden.

‘Thank you,’ I replied and looked at everything before turning back to the text in front of me.

The skill Visage of Smoke is a fantastic skill.

It is very suitable for establishments like Mariha’s Inn used to be. It is a skill that could envelop anyone who enters her inn in a cloak of smoke.

That makes it very hard to see their faces and bodies.

Her guests who wished to remain anonymous used to come in an unmarked carriage.

The moment they entered the stables. The cloak of smoke used to cover them. Keeping their entire identity a secret.

It is an amazingly useful skill and a rare one at that.

I got it and it changed. Advanced actually becomes Masks of Selves. I have read about this, and it made me very excited.

It would help tremendously with many things. Especially with the new element, I want to add within the Velvet Garden.

I wanted to do that, even before the establishment became a legacy, even before I took over the establishment. That idea had come to me when my father had bought the brothel.

I never dared to share with him, considering how scandalous the idea had been, not to mention illegal in the empire and in much of the continent and the world.

This is just a legacy skill. There are still Master’s Skills; both of them have some interesting ones.

“Ahem… We haven’t finished yet.”

Caena spoke, breaking me out of my giddiness, bringing me back to the real world.

There is one more thing that remains. Now that I have the skills from the Tavern, it is time I share mine with it.

I will share the one skill first, before I share the others. With that thought, I activated Domain Expansion.

…

Vanis Lindgren

[Master Legacy: Domain of Desire]

[Master Skill: Domain Expansion]

With it, I have officially become a citizen of Greltheaven and my legacy subject of Silver.

I scrutinized the name of Velvet Garden. Domain of Desire is a lavish name that comes with grand power and skills.

Every word in a legacy’s name means something. Each held power.

I turned to the skill. It is a skill of Grade VI legacies. I have heard that a few Grade V legacies have gotten it in this era, and all of them are massive.

‘How much do you think our legacy will expand?’ asked Mariha. I could sense the anticipation in her voice.

‘At least two, even three times,’ I replied.

I couldn’t compare to Velvet Garden; the expansion depends on vision as well.

Mine is different from Remus’s, but since I saw the power of the skill and part of Velvet Garden, he merged with mine. I believe this will allow for expansion by at least three times.

I was about to activate the skill when it suddenly got activated, and my excitement surged so much that I felt my old heart would give up.

It was when something unexpected happened.

I was expelled from the core space and returned to the real world.

I turned and saw Mariha, looking at me with the same shocked look that was in my own eyes. Before today, nobody could expel us from our core, but now someone did.

Only one person could do it, but I didn’t expect him to do it.

Show who is the boss, so cruelly.

‘My apologies, Lord Vanis. It will be only for a few minutes,’ a familiar voice rang out in my mind. It was apologetic, but it didn’t lessen my anger at this humiliation.

I was expelled from my own core.

I was about to thunder at him, but controlled myself at the last moment. It would not be wise to displease the new master. Still, I have to stand up to this level of humiliation.

…

Greltheaven

‘Lord Silver, you have expelled me from my own core. I understand, I am your subject now, but I deserve to be treated with respect in my own legacy!’ said Vanis.

His words are polite, but I could feel the deep anger in his voice.

The man must feel humiliated; I would, if I had been in his place, but I have no choice. He can’t see what will happen; I don’t trust him enough to show him.

‘Once more I apologise, Lord Vanis, but I need you distant from the core for this,’ I replied, apologising to him once more.

‘I deserve an explanation,’ he demanded. ‘I can’t tell you much. Other than, it is a foundational secret of Greltheaven with massive consequences,’ I replied

There was a silence for a moment before the man spoke again.

‘I hope I will earn enough trust, one day, to know about it,’ he said. I didn’t reply to that and turned to Caena.

She activated the spell. Immediately, twenty-four planets and thirty-six small ones behind them lit up.

As they did, they began pulling the power from my core, and I didn’t resist. I let them pull it as they did, and I pressed that power on Vanis’ legacy.

I waited with bated breath, as there was a good chance this plan might not work.

I am not talking about the expansion of the legacy. That will happen, I am talking about creating a domain in the city of Inam.

It happened differently in Greltheaven. Caena had studied the spell and made numerous changes. She already told me that the changes of the spell working are less than 50%.

The two groups of planets sucked more and more essence from the core.

Aside from using it in battle, I haven’t harvested any essence. I wanted to, there are so many people demanding it. Even I needed it for my own use, but I resisted harvesting it.

I knew I would need it here, and that had been a wise choice. Those planets are absorbing a lot of essence.

I shifted my focus a little and saw Lord of Inam and others were still sitting in the legacy.

Carla’s sole job is to keep these people there and prevent them from suspecting anything.

As long as they are in the legacy. They would not be able to sense what is happening.

Lord of Inam is powerful, but he is in the legacy. Earlier, he might have been able to sense things, but now that it has become my subject, he wouldn’t be able to.

The planets absorbed more and more essence until I began to get worried.

The more power they absorb, the greater pressure builds on the tavern’s core. If it went beyond its limit, it could crack apart the tavern’s core; that is why I am ready to pull the plug at any moment.

There is another thing, I am nearly out of essence. If it pulls more, then it will begin to harm the core of Velvet Garden.

I was thinking that when it finally happened.

Twelve tiny planets emerged from the Tavern’s core and flew out of the legacy. They moved circularly, covering more and more area every second.

I watched it with bated breath; the more area they cover, the more domain I will have under my control.

Soon, they moved past the area I was hoping they would cover, and they didn’t even slow down. They continued moving until they finally began to slow.

It still took several seconds before they finally stopped.

‘It is covering an area nearly twice that of Greltheaven,’ said Caena, surprised. We thought the domain would cover an area of only half of Greltheaven’s current city.

It went beyond that. It is covering twice the area of Greltheaven. I am talking about the inner city of Greltheaven, not the expanded area where the second wall will be.

It is beyond our expectations, but when compared to Inam. It only covers a small part of it, considering how massive the city is.

It is about one-ninth of Inam, but that is fine. What matters is that it had worked.

The domain is very large and it covers many important parts of the city. Including about 45% of the administrative district.

I was looking at the area it had covered when the twelve planets blazed.

Now that they have covered the domain. It’s time to expand the legacy.

A second and a half later, it began.

The legacy began to expand; it took a few seconds to double in size, and it didn’t stop, and it kept increasing rapidly.

Soon, it increased, tripled in size, and then quadrupled, and it kept expanding while I watched in stunned shock.

Seconds passed as it continued to expand until the core began to resist, as it always did. The planets blazed and pushed through the resistance and continued expanding.

Until finally the legacy reached the breaking point when it stopped, and planets began to dim down.

I looked at the massive size of Vanis Tavern; it had become bigger than I had expected.

It’s not as big as the Velvet Garden had been at Grade III, but it’s still massive when compared to most legacies.

“It will be the fifth biggest legacy on the continent. It would have been fourth if it had been slightly bigger.” Said Caena and I nodded with a smile.

It is one of the reasons why I had merged my essence into it.

If I hadn’t done that, the size would have increased by three times, or at most four times. Given how powerful the expansion skill is, that would have been the limit.

Now it is much bigger and it is also fluid like mine. Meaning, I could be very flexible with the design.

I turned to the core. The planet is still there, and now twelve tiny, colourful moons have formed a ring around it. It looks rather beautiful.

The tavern core is different from the other planets revolving around my sun.

It is bigger and feels more lifelike. Also around it is the ring of twelve tiny moons, which is unique to it.

They made the planet look even more enchanting, but Vanis won’t see the twelve moons like he won’t see the other planets revolving around the core of Velvet Garden.

The only thing he will see is the core of Velvet Garden with the core of Vanis Tavern revolving around it.

I can’t show him all of it, until he earns my trust.

…

Vanis Lindgren

[Legacy Skill: Rewind Restoration]

[Legacy Skill: Patrons Paradise]

‘I will release other skills later,’ his voice rang out in my mind as the skills appeared in front of me.

I barely glanced at them. I want to see my core. He may have locked me out of it, but I felt the immense strain; the core was under a few seconds ago, and it worried me very much.

I don’t know what he did, but I want to see my core.

I opened my mouth to ask for it when he released the control, and I could sense my legacy once more.

Every extent of it, and as I did, I forgot everything else, including the humiliation and my anger at Silver. The change was too immense for my emotions to mean anything.

It made me feel even more curious about what he did, but I am damn well sure that it definitely has some witchcraft involved in it, but I don’t care.

“Lord, take me!” Mariha cursed loudly, feeling the size of the Tavern.

“What is it, Lady Mariha?” asked Lord Valtir, son of Lord Thorn, but she was too shocked to answer; I don’t think she even heard the question.

“Vanis?” asked Lord Thorn, and I unwillingly brought my senses back.

“The size of the legacy increased by more than we had thought,” I replied, and I could see their eyes lighting up. There is a condition in the contract that if the size of the legacy increases by a specific size, they will get more emotion essence.

“By how much?” he asked.

“I believe it is by around 1232%,” declared Carla, making them all suck their breath sharply.

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