Monsters and legends, p.54
Monsters and Legends, page 54
part #1 of Infinite Realm Series
Void Qi (Aspect Perk)
Your Qi passively enhances your body with the Essence of the Void. Making any foreign essence in your body disintegrate, the speed of the effect depends on the power of the foreign essence. Gain +20% to strength and wisdom.
Aspect Manifestation: Void Aura (Path Perk)
Manifest your Qi in the form of an aura around you, dealing Void damage equal to 0.4x (0.1x) your wisdom per second. Anything marked by the Void Qi takes an additional one-quarter of the total damage dealt over the next four seconds.
He debated using some of his remaining Essence on his second path, but he decided to put that aside for a moment. He needed to get the town out of the scenario and he was sure that he would need Essence to purchase things after he activated the interface. He would need to upgrade the town, but would also gain access to the better shops and he wanted to have some Essence in his bank for that. With a sigh, he stood up and went to find Anrosh—and to finally be done with the creation of this town.
CHAPTER 79 – PRESENT – Ryun
Debt
Ryun stood in the center of the town, Anrosh by his side. The rest of the town’s people were surrounding them, but all of them were a dozen steps away. Ryun had never really gotten to know the people. He knew a few—Jishh, and Enka, Kri—but the others were just faces to him. He had already forgotten the names of the leaders of the town, those who Anrosh had introduced to him. They were unimportant, and he hadn’t really allowed himself to think what he was going to do after this point.
Now, he looked around at them more closely. There were ninety-three people here; they had lost a few people in the monster attacks, and there were several dozen wolves as well. Ereclaw stood among them, with a few of the warriors standing with wolves. As Ryun had planned, some of them had gotten closer.
Ryun knew that once he activated the interface things would change. He would be their leader in more than just name.
The entire town looked empty now. The temporary buildings had been taken down, the tents packed up. There were only two large barns—one for storage and one that had been used as a dormitory—and of course the main residence. The rest was just empty ground, dirt, and in a few places cobbled stone. The town was maybe two hundred meters across, longer than it was wide, but not by much. The walls were simple, not made to last, but only to be used for the purpose of the scenario. Anrosh had told him that the Black Viper Sect hadn’t known what the scenario for claiming of the territory was, and that the fact that no one had managed to do it for a long time made them want to prepare more. It was why they took so much time to build up the defenses.
The moment Ryun created an official town, they would start buying buildings and expanding. Fier, their former master, had been given Essence to pay for the bare minimum, Essence that Ryun had taken from him when he killed him—something Anrosh and the others didn’t know completely. They had some used Essence in storage, too, and from what Anrosh had told him just recently, they could use Essence that was already cycled for purchasing things in the shop, but its value was lowered every time it was cycled. Ryun hadn’t been aware of that, as it hadn’t been possible on Earth. Still, Ryun had a lot of cycled Essence, and he had been trying to figure out what to do with it. Fully raising others didn’t appeal to him; a few who had proven themselves to him, aside from Anrosh, but the others would need to be content with scraps. It was the way of the sects, as Anrosh told him. The strong give the weak small amounts of Essence to let them advance when they think that they had earned it. Ryun had no problem with such a system.
Raising everyone equally would require a level of trust that Ryun didn’t feel toward these people. His Essence would be useful in the shop, if nothing else, and he had quite a lot of both Essence and items that he could sell.
Seeing the nervousness and anticipation of the people around him, he decided to proceed. He glanced at Anrosh, seeing her blue eyes shining out of her dark green face. Somehow, Ryun had gotten used to the differences in this world, to the different races. Anrosh considered herself a human, and to her it was Ryun who was different. It didn’t matter much, he’d concluded, as such small differences were little relative to the entirely different races.
He nodded his head in her direction and then pulled out the three anchoring crystals from his storage.
The very center of the town was where most people chose to put their interfaces, for several reasons, but the main one was that everyone should be able to access it and use some of the more basic functions, while only Ryun and those he authorized could use the more expansive functions.
The three crystals had clicked together, making a three-sided star, and Ryun focused on it.
Do you wish to create the Town Interface here? Y/N
Ryun pressed the button, and then the ground split and a large obelisk made out of black marble grew out of it, covered with glowing symbols that Ryun didn’t understand. Then the interface flashed and the sky split into three parts, then disappeared and was replaced with the single blue sky with the sun shining from above. Notifications and windows appeared in front of Ryun and he focused on them.
Congratulations! You’ve just claimed the Twilight Woods Territory. Since you have no other affiliations you are granted the full ownership rights over the new territory!
Rewards:
—Twilight Woods Den (Town Upgrade)
—Title: Ruler
Ryun blinked at the notification, and then read the accompanying information. This seemed different than what he knew about the Town Stones on Earth, but then again this was not his old world. He glanced at the title screen to see what his new title gave him.
Ruler
Become the sole ruler of a territory.
+5 to all stats, 5000 Greater Essence, Small Mansion unlocked (Town Upgrade)
It wasn’t anything impressive, but that was only compared to his other titles. Ryun put it aside and started reading the other notifications. He got one that asked him if he wanted to change the name of the territory, which Ryun dismissed, as the Twilight Woods seemed appropriate enough. The next two, however, asked him to name the town and choose a crest for the territory, neither could he dismiss. He turned to Anrosh.
“Any idea on a town name and crest?” Ryun asked.
“The original plan was for it to be named Woodwall. That was what the sect decided,” Anrosh answered.
Ryun tilted his head. That wasn’t bad, but he didn’t want to name his town after what the previous owners wanted.
“Any ideas?” he asked Kagehime.
“How about…Sharppoint?” she answered.
Ryun blinked. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”
“Well, what were you expecting when you decided to ask a sword to help you name a town? That is your stupid meatbag custom! Why did you have to bring me into it?”
Ryun sighed, he really shouldn’t have expected anything better. He looked around, and then had an idea. He started putting the name in, then made the window visible to Anrosh. She looked at it and then nodded. With her agreement, he confirmed the name.
Congratulations! The town of Wolf’s Grove is now the capital of this territory. Losing this town and its interface will mean losing the territory.
After that, he had to assemble a crest from what looked like stars: he drew a wolf’s head and then picked the color to be green. With that done, he was presented with the town interface. His name was placed as the Ruler, and he had slots to assign leaders of different rank and access. He put Anrosh as his second and gave her access to everything. He didn’t put anyone else as he decided it was better for her to do it, since she knew the people better. Then, he moved over to the construction sections, and saw a lot of options for building. In the corner he could see his Essence, what he had available currently, and then added to that the worth of the Essence that he had in his storage which he had already cycled. It was a lot of Essence—with both sources together, it combined for nearly a million points of currency.
Then he looked at what buildings he could build. He had some basic options available, but there were many unique and advanced options available as well, although all were extremely expensive, even for him. He could even see the options that were unavailable, and he could see the requirements for them. Some needed a greater town population, others needed other buildings built first, some needed titles, which was probably why he could a few. The Small Mansion reward from his title let him pick from several choices of mansions, but he needed to buy it, while his other town upgrades seemed to be free.
But seeing all the people around them waiting, he decided to start with the essentials first. He went into the residential section and started browsing, and Anrosh could see the window as well now since she had access. Quickly, they realized that they had no idea what they were looking at and didn’t know what the best building was for them to choose. So Anrosh offered that they get some help.
She looked around and then called one of the people waiting. A short, older-looking human with gray hair and a freckled face walked over. Ryun recognized him from the meeting Anrosh gathered for him when he decided to lead these people, but he couldn’t remember his name.
“Monarch. Lady.” The man bowed before them. Ryun had learned that the alternative to calling their superiors “master” was to call them by their Cultivation stage, and he had allowed that to be used. It seemed that his advancement had been noticed.
“Gen, we need help in deciding which buildings to buy,” Anrosh said, reminding Ryun of the man’s name.
“Of course, that is why I was brought along,” Gen said. “If you give me access I will be able to make the selection properly. I need to assess what is available to us… The selection might be small, since we are not affiliated with the sect anymore and do not benefit from their advancement.”
Ryun went back and added the man to the list of leaders, then gave him access to the catalog of buildings and map, but didn’t allow him the ability to buy. He planned on putting in some of his extra cycled Essence inside to be used by the town, but he didn’t want anyone but Anrosh to be able to use it.
The man blinked as the window became visible to him and then his eyes widened. “Oh. This is more than I expected,” the man said.
“In what way?” Ryun asked.
The man met Ryun’s eyes, then immediately dropped them. “Apologies, Monarch, but I did not expect to see much available. True, many of the basic building types are still locked, but I see many of unique buildings. And these…” The man pointed to several buildings that were available for immediate construction, the rewards from the scenario. “These are treasures that any sect would want to have.”
Ryun glanced at the buildings the man indicated. He had assumed that they were powerful and useful himself after he’d read what each one did. “First the residential section, and then we will decide on the rest.”
“Of course, Monarch.” Gen bowed, and then he started looking through the buildings.
He asked some questions, mostly about the future of the town and expansion, what their plans were and so on. Anrosh answered all the questions, based on what they had agreed beforehand. Ryun still didn’t know what he really wanted, but so far he wanted the town protected and able to grow.
In the end they decided to fill an entire section of the town with family houses, since most of the people sent here were in fact families. Each house would be two stories high and would support two families—that meant that the end of the town that was near one of three gates was the residential district.
Ryun was having some difficulty orienting himself. Since this world didn’t really have any compass points, the sun was always in the center of the sky, but these people had their own way of telling directions. Apparently, at night the symbols of the territory were always oriented in the same way, so the top of the crest was always pointing north, and the stars that were at the tip of the four points were glowing slightly brighter. Ryun didn’t know yet, since he hadn’t seen night in this territory, but he had been told by Anrosh about what would happen.
That meant that the residential area was in the southern part of the town. Then, after they chose the building types, deciding on simple square buildings with flat roofs, they purchased them. The buildings weren’t at all expensive, even with furniture, costing barely 2,000 Greater Essence for enough room so that everyone had a home.
As soon as they had purchased them, the southern end of the town was filled with a glowing light, and a few moments later buildings started to appear, as if the light coming from the sky was building them, which might as well be the truth. In a few minutes the construction was done, and the people cheered. Anrosh looked around and clapped her hands, quieting them before then sending them off to pick their homes. She placed a woman in charge of settling everything and had Jishh and his warriors enforce it. Quickly, the mass of people walked away and Ryun, Anrosh and Gen returned to work. They upgraded their simply built storage building and dormitory, making it taller, before building two more to be used as storage as well. The new buildings were constructed out of gray stone, like the houses, and were three stories high, giving them plenty of room for storage.
Next they built a warrior compound, along with an upgraded training area and a larger hall that could be used for various purposes, from meetings to joint meals. Ryun saw that Ereclaw and his wolves were still around and so he turned toward the Twilight Woods Den building that he had gotten as a reward. He knew that the reason he’d received it was because of Ereclaw, and so he decided to place it immediately.
The Town Interface map was currently showing an aerial view of the town, but he expanded it. From what he learned as a Ruler of the territory, he could build anywhere in it, and as the map zoomed out he was surprised to see just how massive the territory was. It encompassed much of the forest in its center, then parts of the mountain range in the east, a lake in the south, and a river that was passing through the north toward the west end of the territory.
He would need to go and scout it all out soon, but for now he had other things to worry about. He narrowed the view to just the town and the hill it was built on along with a bit of the forest. He put the Den in the tree line, close to the town, but still separate—although he didn’t know for how long it would remain so, since he did plan on expanding. Light fell down from the sky outside of the town and he called Ereclaw to him and explained. The wolf nodded and then took his wolves toward the light. The description of the den told him that it would house as many as two hundred animals, and it seemed to provide some kind of bonuses to the wolves’ reproduction rates. It would mean that the pack could expand, and if everything went as Ryun and Ereclaw planned, the town would come to rely on the wolves a lot more.
Then, he had Gen finish setting up the inside of the town. They built an inn and a few specialty buildings like a slaughterhouse, a tannery, and a smithy, since they already had people to operate them, before reaching the last section of the town.
“You must! The people need to see you as their ruler. Your presence needs to be always present!” Anrosh insisted, and Ryun grimaced. Gen seemed to be unsure if he should even speak. Ryun glanced back at the interface, seeing the choices for a mansion. He had tried to argue that what Fier had built was sufficient, but apparently he was an idiot. He didn’t know when exactly Anrosh had gotten the courage to act in such a way with him, but he was liking it. He didn’t enjoy growling at all.
Finally, he sighed. “Fine. Pick the smallest one,” he told her. He saw her opening her mouth to speak, but he gave her a cold look and she thought better of it.
She and Gen looked around and then picked one, a mansion to be his home, the center of his rule. He didn’t need it—he needed to sleep for only a short while every few weeks, and he could just as well do it in a tree—but he did understand that Anrosh knew more about this than him, so he deferred to her. The light came down, and a building was constructed. Ryun could see it from the square, and in fact the streets that Gen had built all seemed to lead to it.
It was larger than the previous residence. A white building that had two sets of stairs leading to a platform where large double doors led inside, it was surrounded by natural rocks that made it look like it was built on top of them, and it stretched upward to four stories, with two towers on two of its widest ends. It wasn’t beautiful to Ryun, but he didn’t really have any taste for such things, so he didn’t know. It just looked like a castle.
He sighed, then turned around to look at the last thing left: the remainder of his specialty buildings.
The first one he picked was the Bountiful Soil, the simplest and maybe most useful choice. It turned an area of the ground into arable land, with a bonus of 50% to crop growth. Ryun knew that if they were to survive here independently, they would need to be able to produce their own food. Buying everything from the shops wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run, not if they wanted to advance as well. He looked at the map, and found a clear area in the south near the lake. He used it and the light came down from the sky in the distance.
Then he turned to the Walls of the Molten King. The amount of walls that he could build coincided with the size of the current walls, which he didn’t think was accidental, but the walls gave a massive increase in defense compared to the simple walls they had now. They were taller at three meters, and thicker at two-and-a-half at the base and one-and-a-half up on the top. They also had battlements and three towers aside from the three gates. The walls also had a 20% resistance to fire-based attacks, which Ryun thought was a good thing, not that he knew much about breaching walls. The ones that he had encountered were easily countered by him simply jumping over them.
