So just like I had previously mentioned, my place was the 'gothic medieval manor' player home. It was, in my opinion, a classic. When the entire feature of owning your own plot of land on a server came out, it had been one of the launch baseline models. It had been popular with a lot who purposefully claimed land next to the settlements, because it absolutely looked quite in theme and blended seamlessly. I- Mikel- had been one of them.

  Then when Lighthouse got popular, my player home had been swarmed by a bunch of nosy players. So I had opted to move to somewhere a bit more remote for peace and quiet. Each one of us had, some taking the chance of more plentiful territory to go a little wilder with our designs. Like Kai and their dream realm, Joan and her grand monastery, or Ironfist with an entire hold.

  I was probably the most boring of the lot and just went for manor expansion so that mine was at least bigger than normal. This took of the form of mirrored wings extending from the main building, each of them being more than just corridors even. But maybe I was getting a little ahead of myself- let's just focus on said core structure itself, the oldest and jam-packed part of it all.

  It was a large space that was undoubtedly the beating core of the entire home. The first sight then was none other than a great hall to welcome visitors, bracketed by twin staircases that curved around. I had loved occasionally making a dramatic appearance via slow descent down them, like the master of the house I was. It could probably even be used as a ballroom, I've seen some player homes convert it even into a dance hall. It probably survived the best through the ages, the entire main building had to be honest, with the primary failing being those still fallen wooden doors.

  Bah, I couldn't want to get some sort of metal to properly fix those rotten hinges. I already was sketching up a new design for some new doors now that I was a puppet crafter. It wouldn't do to just be my knight's coat of arms anymore.

  On the lower floors, the great hall then led into another big space, a large dining room with an attached kitchen and pantry. It even did lead down into a cellar beneath the space for all my drinks. Things in the cellar had been the ones to survive the passage of time best, but again, I wasn't sure how old alcohol could get before it was actually unsafe. Maybe no such thing existed and I now owned the most expensive spirits in the world. That'd be the envy of Lighthouse's drinkers, of which we had several.

  But the kitchen and pantry were absolutely gone, most of the cookware having crumbled at the lightest touch when I had checked it out out. The old grand table had collapsed as well, so I used it for firewood in the early days. Since acquiring clay and mastering ceramics, I was able to replace pots and bowls, but I'd like to make better even if I didn't need to eat. I might even break the fantasy immersion and make some metal pans and pots if I had enough spare resources to spare.

  Otherwise, the pantry was probably going to remain empty for a long time and I was okay with that. Though again, I'd like to dabble with cooking someday, that had been a craft in FLOW. Who knows, maybe one day I could host guests from afar. Or have a tea party of myself and my dolls.

  ...Yeah, okay, that sounded pretty weird. But it'd be cute!

  Ahem. Moving on, the second floor of the main building had been the master bedrooms, the attached bathroom, and my player vault. They were massive rooms, each separated from by a singular hallway. The vault was thankfully the most reinforced structure of the entire thing, the lock even still being intact when I had first approached it. I had been worried that it wouldn't recognize me but it instantly swung open at a touch, which upon reflection made sense. It was an account vault that retainers could access if need be. And it was also depressingly mostly empty. Old memoirs and trophies littered the space, with a gradually dwindling crystal count that made me very aware that I could maybe make one more advanced doll, but that was it for sure. Smaller constructs even, I had to be careful of what I made.

  The master bedroom was in a terrible state compared to it. There were holes in the floor that led to the dining room below, so I had to watch my step. The bathroom was equally as bad, the damage so significant that the water crystals were cracked. I'd probably have to replace those if I wanted to ever bath myself in here, I wasn't going to lug buckets to fill up a tub. And I didn't want to always be taking open showers to clean myself, if only to avoid ending up on an obscene list somewhere.

  The less said about the condition of either centerpieces, bed or bath, the better. There was no salvaging them. They had, heh, gone beyond what I could fix.

  Aside from the rooms in the top floor, there had been another the hallway led to, something that had been one of my favorites. But as expected, they fared the worst compared to everything else. The large glass windows leading to the balcony were shattered, and said fixture was entirely gone too. That was something that did curl my lips in a mix of disappointment and determination. I had liked being able to sometimes take a seat outside and have a lunch there on good days, taking in the view of the outside gardens.

  I was absolutely restoring that one day out of nostalgia if nothing else.

  Finally in the main building, there was also the basement level and, aside from the space for the cellar, a singular room that dominated the entire space. It was my grand workshop of so many stations, which did survive the test of time! I think because it had been underground, most of everything thankfully remained intact. Only unfortunately the tools rusted away, likely from groundwater seeping through into the rack.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  They were my top priority to replace once I got ores. Quality tools were critical for a crafter, especially for some things that I couldn't finagle with stone.

  So that was the main building, but one might notice the lack of certain things. Well, mainly because once I had my expansion wings added on, I offloaded the designated space for them over to those. I had wanted the workshop for Noel to be the cutting edge to keep up with those damn cash shop items, hence why it had received the lion's share of the newly freed space. The puppet had practically lived in the space with how large it was, and still they had shyly asked for even more. Well, I couldn't blame them having now been them for some time- it never felt like there was enough space for all the projects I wanted to do.

  Returning to the little tour I was giving, both wings were two story like the main building, and it would be amiss for me to not mention the corridors and the rooms therein. Both had an assortment of many guest rooms, because sometimes Lighthouse did want to come by and spend the night at my place. It apparently was the coziest and most agreeable to the majority of them, so I made sure I had enough rooms for both visitors and my retainers. That meant I had a lot of spare rooms to do with what I liked, and I wasn't quite sure what to do now with them.

  Maybe I'll just add even more workshops in them? Nah, that'd be a hassle to split my workspace. Most of them were destroyed anyhow, save a few that weren't in better condition. Even the ones my retainers had lived, sans Noel, were pretty ruined but there were some personal effects and touches that I'd carefully preserve and set aside. Maybe once I mustered the courage to, I'll look through and sort them out later.

  The western wing was a building I had devoted entirely to a massive library space, one that spanned both floors. Which, of course, meant that when a wall caved in that also collapsed the ceiling, the entire collection was absolutely ruined. The sacred texts! A true tragedy that I mourned for and vowed to fill shelves in again one day. And so long as I had this body, I wanted to collect and document this new story of Shin in the space.

  At the opposite side, the eastern wing, things were much more varied. The lower level had been a training space which actually did mostly survive. Likely because the space had always been reinforced almost just as well as the vault, in case any of us felt like having some friendly spars. I just had to replace the wooden dummies and patch some holes.

  The upper floor space though had been my variety rooms that I had regularly changed through depending on whim and mood. Sometimes it had been an armory for when we needed to compare and argue about our best in slot. A few occasions, a war room for when time came for large scale PvP events. Other times, a game room for when we wanted to just blow time off with meaningless mini games. I definitely kept one reserved for seasonal holiday rotations to show off whatever latest event goodies I had farmed out.

  However now, all that had been trashed and in need of complete rebuilding like so many other aspects of my player home. How annoying. And I didn't even bother mentioning the outside, mainly because other than the flowerbed- of which its current untrimmed state would have left Cordelia aghast- that was a complete write-off.

  My gazebo, that fearsome monster, gone!

  However, the decay wasn't all bad. It told me much about the extent of [Foundation]. The skill itself was known to have a technical timer on it, a very long one admittedly that would automatically refresh so long as its owner had logged online. That way, inactive player homes could get demolished to make room for new ones wishing to claim the space. I had always logged on now and then even when interest in FLOW waned, just to not lose my space at the very least.

  I guess that translated into the skill providing natural resistance against the passage of time, which could have offset some of the ruin that eventually came. But the more intriguing thing was how the timer was refreshed. Because Mikel hadn't been the one who used [Foundation] on them; it had been Noel- me. So technically, the home should have never fallen apart so long as Noel was around right?

  Well, no. It counted the 'owner' of the estate back in FLOW. Which was then of course the player character, else people would have just tagged their always-online retainer for the owner and then never have to worry. My curiosity laid in if Noel had ever used [Foundation] themselves when Mikel's ownership had run out and the effect expired.

  My guess was likely not or if they had then the skill had counted their time shutdown as choosing to be inactive.

  So now, the question was then how it worked now. Since I was a puppet, I wouldn't likely ever die from old age. And I would be active at all times until I chose not to be, which was likely going to be very rarely and only briefly to mimic sleep if I wanted to. Did that mean that anything I used [Foundation] on could last in perpetuity? If I made a great castle with the very best defenses there were, something that could even drive off a raid boss, then would it forever stand so long as I lived?

  Hm. I should be on the lookout and keep this skill under wraps until I knew who had it in this world. If nobody had, then [Foundation] was quite dangerous for me to openly flaunt. I could think of too many opportunists who could want to take advantage of it. Best keep it localized to my own home for the moment.

  At least with how much rebuilding Frie was doing now, I would be using it a lot. And with the outer wall expanding how much space I had to work with, maybe I would build more onto this old manor of mine.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------?