To his great surprise, Aki quickly found out that some monster settlements would indeed surrender if he scared them enough. Apparently seeing the several explosions in the distance for days on end had been enough to convince over a dozen monster settlements that it was an incredibly moronic idea to try and fight the maniacally laughing weirdo riding an undead bird.
The actual surprise in all of that was that by having them accept a citizenship contract, there were no sudden physical changes or anything of the like, but instead they seemed to immediately mellow out and lose a lot of the aggression that made them easily categorised as monsters.
Only a few had the ability to speak and such, but it was like many were slowly remembering their roots as civilized species, because that's apparently what they had been if the psyche altering construct that kept trying to dissipate when they signed a contract with him indicated.
The only reason he even knew what it did was that he studied quite a few and made one himself, casting it on a criminal and an animal, which caused quick deterioration of their self preservation plus bursts of pure hatred for any perceived enemies.
At first he'd thought that people kept reporting that normal animals acted differently than monsters even if they were enhanced by the system because of some biological bullshit pushing them to have an intellect similar to humans or some such, but apparently monsters were indeed bred and drugged.
Aki already understood that the system didn’t actually give a shit about morals and ethics, only efficiency, so something like this was to be expected, but he did wonder what other people would think when they figured out that it brought some civilizations to act as monsters instead of invaders as well. To him that just meant that it was easier to recruit the goblins, trolls, beast-kin, were-kin and in the future any merfolk he found.
As they also received the benefits of citizenship, it wasn’t even that hard to convince those he scared into accepting the contract. Criminals didn’t retain their benefits after all, and those benefits were linked to their own perception of crime and his rules rather than being found breaking said rules.
Ruling with the system was infinitely easier than without it.
“So that’s a danger zone?” Aki asked the hob besides him, rather surprised that despite its name the thing was a white obelisk in the middle of a plain. It had been guarded by several monsters in their fifties, but he was honestly not impressed.
“Yes my lord.” Bowed the yet unnamed greenskin. “All those that went inside explained that they received a notification asking whether they wish to enter the danger zone. Actually going in leads you to an empty cave that leads to several tunnels filled with gnolls.”
“Gnolls you say? Do they have females?” He asked in all seriousness, but the hobgoblin seemed afraid of his own memory rather than the young man standing besides him.
“They do my lord, but they are even scarier than the males.”
“That’s great to hear. You can go back now, help prepare for my delegates’ arrival and with the city integration. Remember, the first ten major offenders will be impaled by the anus in public spaces and have their limbs nailed to burning plates before being grafted into that position to be left to die of hunger, thirst and anima deficiency, so don’t.” Aki nodded, happily grinning as he again reminded the new citizens that despite his policies, he was infinitely more cruel than their former overlords.
Normal emprisionaments would still happen, but the state needed to benefit for there to be easy to maintain reformation workspaces, and it wasn’t like those would be feasible if the places he came to all suddenly became dens of unruly misfits due to a lack of fear of his gentle approach.
…………..
The gnolls were, again, not all that impressive. All of them were actual energy constructs (they turned into motes of light and gave less XP when killed), almost mindless too, though the latter could either be because of programming or because that’s exactly how gnolls fight. Even their archers charged him, trying to stab him with arrows when he approached and shooting at short-medium range with abandon for their comrades.
To be fair though, they were great berserkers. Had this been anyone else they’d probably get swamped by the neverending tide of enemies, which did respawn and come directly for him, even if they had been on the opposite side of the dungeon, though the agro range probably had something to do with how he kept creating a ruckus as he fully explored the place, completely ignoring the boss cave, which was populated by a lone two and a half gnoll with a bulging chest.
Aesthetically, they were a lot like the farvit as they had what could only be described as a small muzzle, humanoid bodies, fur and hair, though there was the obvious differences of claws, sharp teeth, the strange laugh which he actually thought cute and also their small tails.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
This looked a lot more like some kind of instanced dungeon than normal however, as he found several ornamental chests with loot, which wasn’t really comparable in quality to his own crafted equipment, but was most certainly higher level. Those seemed to not respawn though, so going through the whole dungeon twice only granted him a bit of XP and a few levels in Lord of death since he’d killed a few thousand of a new species.
Having taken the chance to test his newly improved physique, he’d even done so by swinging around multiple weapons he had. Swords, kukris, axes, war scythes and even his helbard, even managing to damage some with pure battle intent. The quick change and dual wielding while making sure to take advantage of each weapon’s specialties so he’d cut and swim through wave after wave of enemies as he walked through the dungeon did a lot for his actual expertise at using them, even increasing the rank of his battle proficiency skill to Orange by the time he entered the boss room, which he wasn’t followed into.
The boss itself guarded another obelisk, this one black. Touching it graced him with a rather excessive notification.
[You are the main contributor to the conquest of the Ravine of soulful shrieks! Choose one of the following bonuses:
I- Your stats and XP collection rate are doubled.
II- (X)
III- All from your species receive +5 to every stat and +25% more XP. Every child born from now on also receives the same bonus.
IV- All under your rule, including yourself, receive +10 to every stat and +50% more XP.
OBS: Any individual can only receive +100% to XP gathering through this method.
1 Note: Only a fated individual will be able to defeat the second and fourth calamities.
2 Note: Due to you soloing the Danger zone and being the leader of a nation, a new option was unlocked.]
While the fourth option was new, Aki felt like this looked a bit too much like a certain other novel within a nexus. More importantly, he knew for a fact that there were at least five danger zones. If he chose to double his stats every time, then he’d end up with thirty two times what he began with.
He wasn’t going to do that, the idea seemed extremely fishy to begin with, as he would never believe that the system would allow for such a cheat. Had he taken the steles from his zone to reinforce his own stats and chose to invest everything in himself, then his lowest stat would have become a ridiculous six thousand. A lot of things inside of him told his subconscious that getting to that kind of number would be a terrible idea that would break too many things.
Then again, doing it a few times should be fine. The system did expect at least one person to fall for the trap since it put something like that on a note after all, and who else but him could turn the situation on it's head and take all of the benefits.
Still…
…………….
[Congratulations, denizens of The new world. The Ravine of soulful shrieks has been cleared! Prime Ocissus Aki has elected to share the rewards solely with his nation. All citizens of the Insania Kratocratic Republic receive +10 to all stats and experience gained is increased by an additional 50%. The total bonus experience gained is now: 50%.
For clearing the Ravine of soulful shrieks, the Danger Zone is now connected to the Realm of the Ravine of soulful shrieks! There, even more savage tribes of gnolls live. Their attention will not be drawn to the new portal, but they will be able to traverse the worlds just as well as you can. Care, because it will be difficult for a developing world to reach its full potential if it is at war.
For clearing a Danger Zone, the rate of growth in other Danger Zones will be slightly higher for the next month.]
"What the fuck! WHAT THE FUCK?!” Screamed an older man in the middle of a well furnished office. “Divald! Get your blue ass in here and explain this to me! It has not even been one month since the integration! How can this person apparently defeat a whole danger zone by themselves?!”
“I’m also hearing this for the first time! This is not the name of any power I know and neither does it seem related. Even if this person got out on the first day of the tutorial and delved into several dungeons over their own level the moment they recovered from aether sickness this would still not be enough to reach this level of power so quickly!” Complained a frantic blue skinned humanoid materialising in front of the main desk. His dark sclera and general lack of irises left no room to argue that he might have been human, but other than that and his colour palate, he looked much the same as one.
Through all the existing towns on the planet and some of the biggest villages, many more versions of this very scene began to happen as the global notification confused many and shocked the few that understood it’s implications.
Soon, however, there was a breakthrough in understanding the situation as the village spirits visited their menus in search of answers they had thought would not be there.
“... And so I warn those that wish to stand in a position similar to mine that I have standards, and when those are not followed my hypocrisy ceases to be of concern, soon allowing me to bask in violence and terror without inhibition.” Read the introductory passage of the auto-biography, ‘An autumn leaf’s first fall’. Each word brought a sinking feeling to it’s intended audience, the writing’s depth a mere flair to those that it did not wish to show itself to.
More importantly, several village spirits found themselves trembling and paling, some even receiving backlashes due to being unable to contain their words and emotions while in the presence of those who were not in the know about all that the system did to this world.
Some people tried to file complaints, but what could a mere regional manager of a mere village or town actually do to bring a proper Nexus citizen to court?