There was something deeply amusing about the expressions some people made when they stumbled across my lessons for Luna. At least some of the lessons, somehow the magical lessons barely drew a raised eyebrow, nor did the martial arts training Lia or I occasionally put her through. Those were things people seemed to expect after the change, but the simple, classical school lessons for subjects like reading, writing, maths and simple science? Those threw people for a loop, especially when I used school books we had pilfered from the library to give my lessons some structure.

It was so perfectly mundane, to the point that the lessons could have happened before the change just as well as now, people didn’t really know how to react. Here, they hadn’t fully adjusted to this new reality, despite it being a few months old. They had managed to give themself a bit of purpose in their described mission to take back their city from the Undead and Shattered but there was a lack of true, long-term planning. The people living here had formed a group out of necessity, but they had yet to turn that group into a community.

Sadly, I was still at a loss for what to do about that. The best case scenario was that some of the locals finally figured out that power was a means to an end, that clearing their city would only happen if they formed a larger group, maybe started to explore the surrounding area to find more people and make sure that as many as possible would survive the coming winter. If they didn’t manage to do that, they’d have to hope that some other community stumbled across them and decided to integrate them. Otherwise, the two-hundred-odd people living here would likely get decimated or worse, with only a fraction of their number surviving long-term.

There was a tiny part of me that wondered if I could actively intervene. A small spark, maybe a leftover instinct binding me to my former race, but a far larger part, the part of me that actively considered the future and tried to plan for it, could easily see why that idea was a foolish one. Not only did I lack the managerial skills to direct such a group, the only thing I had going for me in regards to leadership was my overwhelming power. I could rule by might, and I could likely force people to obey me, even if I had to rend their minds to do so, but I couldn’t rule. And, really, I didn’t want to.

There was a reason I had picked the traits I had chosen, even if those traits had been planned for a game and not to remain with me all my life. I didn’t enjoy large groups, I preferred my solitude or acting with a few, deeply trusted companions. Numbers, and to a lesser point documentation, had been an interest of mine, but people? Those I wasn’t good with and I was conscious of that.

No, trying to set myself up as ruler of anything but a kingdom of magical constructs was a horrible idea. And yet, I didn’t want to see large groups of humans vanish, if only because I knew that growing food would be a massive hassle. A conundrum that had plagued me quite a while and I had yet to find a solution. Maybe some subtle help, as I was providing here, would do the trick. And if not, I’d have to find another way.

Could Luna and I work together to create some agricultural constructs? Her Life Magic might be a good first step and I might be able to create a semblance of intelligence by programming them using my Mind Magic.

But before I started to make a plan to replace humans, I focused on trying to keep as many of them alive as I reasonably could. Here, that meant I worked with them when it came to martial combat, always a good first step, while hinting at the long-term problems they’d run into. Providing some magical solutions for a few of their troubles, mainly the lack of water, also helped a great deal and created momentum in the right direction but I felt there needed to be some sort of catalyst, some moment that welded the people here together and turned them from a group united in necessity to a community working for their future. A subtle difference but I felt it was an important one.

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The easiest way to unite people was, classically, an outside enemy. One that could be rallied against, especially if that enemy was already disliked, would forge people into a singular force capable of great, or terrible, things. Only, what group could I turn into a threat?

The Undead and Shattered were the obvious answer but also an answer that didn’t really work as things were. They didn’t truly threaten the people here, thus the locals had gotten used to them, likely considering them as a fact of nature to some extent. Something akin to the weather, you could get annoyed about it, you could take a few measures but bad weather wasn’t really a threat you could unite against. Not unless you managed to get some really good arguments and incredible amounts of public relations going, in that case, you could, but only just. And not widespread enough to actually achieve anything.

No, if I wanted the Undead to be the threat the locals united against, I’d have to show them just how much of a threat they were, which could backfire spectacularly. The easiest way to do so would be to get a large group of them to move into this area, or at least one led by a singularly powerful Shattered to attack their apartment building. Show them just how fragile their current existence is and they would hopefully get things started to change that fragility.

Another alternative would be to draw one of the animal collectives into this area, the easiest would be a pack of dogs but it wouldn’t really work with Silva’s presence. I was fairly certain that my canine companion had made contact already but hadn’t felt the need to actively bring these dogs into the fold, so to speak. Here, the dogs were well-represented, not at the top but not far from it. Not like back home, where the racoons and their hogs had been pressing the original pack she took in, giving them a path to power and a bit of guidance to walk that path. Or maybe she had given them the same guidance, but they didn’t need our protection. I wasn’t sure and there was little I would be willing to do about it either way, it was her project, just like the humans were mine.

The felines were completely out of the question, simply because I didn’t think there was an actual group of them. There were various individuals, all with their own powers, most of them focused on stealth and the silent takedown, making them highly unsuited to act as a visible threat. The best they could do was kill a human or two before retreating back into the shadows. Great to sow terror and fear but horrible to galvanise people into a single cohesive block.

No, beasts weren’t the answer, they were simply unsuited. As I shook my head, my mind went back to the Undead and I considered their potential once again. If the Undead attacked the apartment building in mass, without it looking like anything but an organic process, the people would most likely wake up.

Thinking back, I considered the one time Lenore and I had seriously used Undead, right after Lenore had almost died. That stupid village, with their idiotic youths who thought robbing people was a good idea. Bad information, bad weapons and no real plan other than a serviceable ambush, wiping them all out had been a good thing. At least in my eyes, travelling Mundus had taught me a certain disdain for bandits, something I would no doubt feel here, too.

Turning their village into Undead had been almost entirely Lenore’s work, with very little input from my side, just like everything else we had done with Undead had been. She had used Death Magic, using the necrotic energies within a body to take control and turn them into a puppet. I could conjure necrotic energy, too, I had some control, just like I could control vital energies with my Blood Magic.

Controlling numerous Undead would be nearly impossible, mainly because I couldn’t channel a large amount of necrotic energy without suffering for it. But if I could find a suitable, high-level Shattered, Scorched or something similar, I might be able to take control of that single being, using it as a leader of the Undead and drawing a large group behind it. Forcing the locals to take a stand and even if they failed, I could step in and keep things from getting out of hand. Or maybe I could turn Sonja and Lars into some sort of heroes, having them kill whatever Shattered I could control in an effort to get things going here.

Things to consider…