Svilran did the honors of selecting the upgrade, and suddenly, the room glowed gold.

"Fainn, Fainn, it's changing!"

"Yes! Dear god, please! Please, let the Level 3 Observatory not be so miserable to operate!"

"Fainn, that's rude! It wasn't miserable!"

I wrapped my arms around her hips and pulled her closer. "Oh come on, let me have my moment."

"Well, if you say it like that," she whispered, her cheeks reddening by the second.

The light finally settled, and we both looked around for differences.

"Fainn, I'm pretty sure it's the telescope."

"It's definitely the telescope."

We looked at each other and giggled like children.

""It's got more screens!""

On top of that, it had more controls and looked a little more robust.

"Svilran, it looks like we can track two more missions with these screens. I can also have all the screens lock in on one of our Heroes!"

"Fainn! The controls! They're not so delicate! I can actually see a bit more of a world. Turning the knob doesn't just send us into the cosmos! Oh my gosh! Fainn! We have six bookmarks! We can bookmark coordinates, Fainn!"

I fell to my knees and failed to keep my tears in check. "Hallelujah! We don't have to suffer while driving this stupid thing anymore! We won't have to input those coordinates as often either."

All those hours we spent fumbling around trying to check on the worlds we had discovered--the mere thought we could quickly access six of them. Thank you, Upgrade Points." I shot up from the floor and wiped my eyes. "Okay, Svilran. Babe. Please tell me we have better Hero search functions."

"Hmm..." Svilran fiddled with the controls as she looked through a menu. "I don't think so. We still have our scan button, but it looks like we still can't detect a healthy Hero prospect."

I sighed. "I know it's kind of macabre to bookmark Heroes just to keep checking for when they're about to croak, but come on. Make our job easier... Are there any world-searching helper functions?"

"I... I think so..." She giggled nervously as she scratched her cheeks. "So, there's this function that lets us zoom out to view a portion of the realms. Like a representation of it." She pointed at one of the monitors, and I saw a night sky--one filled with hundreds of stars. "That's how it's conveying the info. If I were to use the function, it would mark up to 3 stars. Then, we would have to narrow in on those lights because those would be the worlds. The telescope would aid us in focusing on the world we wish to investigate."

"Okay... So, not super random, but it still needs us to drive the telescope... What's that weird look for?"

She winced like she didn't want to tell me. "It takes Resource Points."

My mouth fell slack. "Seriously? Another Resource drain? Why?" I sat in the seat and rubbed my temples. "The Resource Points are what are constraining us... I'm starting to feel better about not going for a new square."

"It might be to balance out the fact that the Resource Squares produce the points too, albeit at a slow rate."

"Or, maybe they have that generation feature because whoever designed the system realized how many bottlenecks happen... Well, it's not cool to complain. We have upgrades, and our lives have gotten easier."

"Should we do anything else?" Svilran asked.

"Hold on. Upgrading the <Observatory> unlocked new facilities..."

I showed Svilran my screen, and we both read the contents.

***

New Facilities Unlocked

[UR] Observatory's Communication Hub

[UR] Observatory's Probe Hangar

***

"Oh wow!" I yelled, my excitement getting the better of me. "The <Communication Hub> will let us communicate with Heroes on their missions!"

Svilran restrained my excitement with her most likely correct guess. "It will probably use up our Resource points too..."

"Hmm... And then, that hangar... It 'allows us to send a probe into a world...'" I sat and thought about the benefit for a few moments. I looked at the monitors and then at the item again. "It must act like a Hero does. The probe must allow us to see the world as if we were following a Hero."

Svilran hopped. "Oh! That will let us explore worlds that don't have any missions!"

I groaned as I stretched. "These feel like useful buildings, but they're Ultra Rares! We won't be able to get these things any time soon! And I still want to build something too!"

Svilran giggled. "It gives us things to aim for, doesn't it, Fainn?"

I fell forward in my seat and pouted. "I guess so... Alright, let's move on with Hero Hub improvement. What I would like to Build is this thing--<Status Shrine>."

"Oh, this will give the girls access to a Status Menu..." Svilran followed.

"Yup. This will be essential for us. We need to know what the girls are good at and whatnot. I've had this in mind since you told me about it..."

"I think this is a good idea, Fainn! Should we build it right now?"

"Of course... I think maybe we place it over by the dorms. What do you think?"

"Sure! I don't see a problem with that so far."

And so, we placed the new structure <Status Shrine> and went to check it out immediately. It was a lot more classical-looking than I thought it would be. It was a small temple made of marble, with eight pillars holding up a marble slab. At the center was a pedestal with a round orb surrounded by many magic screens.

As Svilran and I realized, just placing the shrine gave us access to a Status Menu too. We could now see more of our Hero Hub statistics in one convenient place. The most important one I spotted was our Hero Hub Rank. According to it, we were still E-Rank.

We also found out that, for the girls to gain access to their menus, they would have to interact with the shrine once.

"Well, that was a nice surprise," I said. "Can't wait for the girls to see this."

"Me too! How exciting. I wonder what hidden parameters they have... Oh! Dorthaunzee should have a high healing ability!"

"Oh, looks like we got some new facilities along with the shrine."

***

New Facilities Unlocked

[R] Weapon Status Shrine

[R] Armor Status Shrine

[SR] Inventory Shrine

***

"Dear god. It's here. An Inventory system."

"Is that exciting, Fainn?"

"It is! Well, for the girls, it'll be amazing. We need to aim for this too!" I laughed. "Dang it! There's so much to aim for! How are we going to do anything at this rate?"

Svilran giggled. "Heroes! We need Heroes!"