With all the windows shrouding my field of view again, I got confused for a slight moment, before ditching most of them away, just like if I was hiding all the unnecessary windows on the computer monitor for the sake of focusing on the task at hand.

As soon as only the part serving to manage the subdimension on the first floor remained, I was astounded by the multitude of the choices I had.

From the slider that allowed me to increase the overall ratio of the energy siphoned from the central core of the stronghold, through various settings allowing me to decide what part of the energy brought by the new residents would be transferred directly into the subdimension instead of supplying the core, what percentage of the residents energy would be transferred into the system and in which way, what aspects of the subdimension would receive additional energy…

In short words, I could act like a damned god of this place, starting from major aspects like climate or how much mana was infused into the air, all the way to the minute details like the density and acidity of the rains, preferred growth methods and so on.

Sadly, if I wanted to implement any major changes, I would have to expend unholy amounts of energy, that was far greater than my current limit for the entire stronghold, not to speak about just a single floor! But there were some things I had to do right away.

Looking at the current stronghold energy limit, it wasn't hard to calculate that all three of the men brought an increase of one hundred, fifty points each. Considering how there was no land beasts or flora swallowed by the core for the sake of improving its capacity, it was just a matter of a simple subtraction of the previous mana limit from the current one.

From what I calculated and confirmed by looking at the sliders, with how things stood now, one-third of the residents' mana was transferred into the core, with the remaining one hundred being available for my use.

Without a second of hesitation, I bought two things.

"Increased plant growth."

"Increased animals fertility."

Each of them costing fifty points, I used up all the additionals points I got from the new people, and then added a 'magic water source' for an additional one hundred points, wasting away about a third of my free energy points.

If I were to follow Bonger's logic, the points offered by the system were like a bank locate. Instead of using up the source of the energy, I was just deciding what would be the respective parts of the dividends directed to!

This was one of the reasons why I refrained from buying permanent, instant but single-use things, like a tool that allowed me to paint a forest in my small world, for just ten points!

Even if it would allow for an insane growth thanks to the presence of commonly accessible timber, before I would confirm how much energy could I get just by bringing people in, I didn't want to waste away even a single point on single-use aspects! It would be akin to eating the savings away, instead of living off profits from them!

With that done, I closed the window and returned with my consciousness to my body. There was still a lot of stuff I had to take care off, just none of them was as pressing as the trip to the island.

Looking at the state of the tribal war happening there, I couldn't guarantee that the refugees would remain free from the influence of the overlord indefinitely, and snatching them away from the city would be far harder than just inviting them to a better life!

Just a single gaze through the window was enough to alarm me. The sun was slowly beginning to set, leaving me with only as much time to travel to the island!

Unable to waste even a single second of my time, I dashed downstairs, through the small world.

Just like I expected, there was a small lake formed in a depression near the tower, continuously gushing water. Stopping for a moment, I waited for a fair moment to make sure this wouldn't end up with the entire area flooding, but from what I saw, as soon as the water crossed the boundary of the depression, it was instantly sinking into the ground and turning back into the energy supplying the source of the water.

As I couldn't expect to see the results of the other two improvements, I dropped some logs that I had stored on the second floor and rushed for the doors leading outside.

Running through the plains, I realised I should make a way to exit the tower right away, instead of forcing my way through the small world. If in the future, I would've to travel through it every time I wanted to do something in the tower or in the outside, it was sure to give birth to some ideas of being locked down in the heads of the residents!

Before the trio even managed to get hold of the logs rolling on the ground, I was already stepping through the doors leading to the real world.

While the entire island was just a layer of the dust resting on the unfertile ground, there was no denying the purity of the air in here.

As the sea breeze hit me in the face, I remembered the one thing I should've not to forget.

We left the boat at the shore, but what about the tides?

With a fear suddenly raising the level of adrenaline in my blood, I dashed towards the place where we left the boat, only to see it already drifting on the water, around fifty meters away from the dry land!

Obviously, it was impossible for the tide to move the line of the shore so far into the land, but as soon as there was enough water under the bottom of the boat, it was inevitable that it would start floating away!

Cursing my idiocy just as much as thanking for the good luck, I jumped right into the water, taking only a short moment to reach the boat.

If I would appear only a few minutes later, it could enter the sea current, rendering it impossible for me to ever reach it again, and forcing me to swim with my own hands to the island!