I left Christopher's office an hour later after we had agreed. He didn't feel comfortable committing to anything without speaking to the others and I couldn't blame him. It made him seem like a better person since he wasn't willing to take the easy way out. It didn't change anything though they weren't strong enough to deal with threats independently. He did offer me something else though, he agreed to spread the word with some of the other communities in the area. I wasn't sure how many there were but apparently, there was a trading commune that they all agreed to meet at. It sounded kind of like a farmer's market so that was interesting. I decided to let them take a day to think about it which left me with nothing to do.

If I pushed myself I could get back to Amara but was there a point? Outside of learning more about arrays, there wasn't too much for me to do. I could go out and slaughter a few monsters or I could go and find this other settlement. I went back and forth on my trio of options and landed on the monsters option. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just kill the leader of a new settlement yet. I also didn't want to go too far away from the mall. The last thing I needed was for another group to show up and kill them all while I was gone. Killing the attackers did have one additional benefit that made me feel conflicted. They provided around twice as many credits as a monster.

Either killing a human was just worth more or I got the money they had at the time of their death. I wasn't sure which of the two was more concerning. Either way, I benefited and as long as I didn't die it wouldn't matter too much and if I did die it wouldn't matter to me at all. Once I had traveled two hours away I pulled my aura and killing intent inside my body and began a slaughter. None of the monsters were a threat to me and the entire scene was eerie. I was the one killing them so I knew what had happened but if anyone else saw it. The creatures just dropped to the ground. I wasn't even sure they were "dead". The kill energy confirmed that they weren't alive anymore but their bodies looked alive.

They looked like they had all fallen asleep. The beasts in this area were a weird kind of metallic dog. They had silver eyes and hard skin instead of fur. Outside of that, they were pretty weak. They had no mental defenses to speak of and they weren't very smart. They didn't even give a lot of credit. After a few hours, I got tired of the senseless death and decided to explore something else. I made my way into an abandoned store and sealed the entrance behind me. I made myself as comfortable as I could and activated Psychic Mastery. The guidance system appeared and I began to follow its teachings. It took me an hour to complete the initial sphere design but when I did I couldn't help but notice that was real. Or rather that it wasn't just a sphere of energy. I smacked myself in the head when I realized what the fuck I had been doing. Spells were just premade abilities so why did I need to wait to activate one? Why couldn't I just shape my psychic energy into a blade and throw it at someone?

Now that I had the idea I couldn't let it go. The guidance system wanted me to focus on spheres but that was impossible. It was like being told to practice the fundamentals when you just learned you could dunk. I attempted to conjure a dagger of energy similar to something I saw in a comic book at the orphanage. After an hour I couldn't call what I had made a dagger but it was a shaped piece of energy. It was close in design to a lumpy parallelogram but it was a start. I could even aim and fire it. It also required almost no spiritual energy, the attack was powered just by psychic power. I laughed and leaped to my feet. I removed my makeshift barricade and stepped back into the city. I needed to find something to test this out.

It turned out my new abilities were positive but not what I had expected. The attacks were much weaker than when I used my actual spells. Even taking into account that I could only create one at a time the damage wasn't enough. The weaker wolves took around two or three hits to take out while the stronger ones required five. I couldn't find anything as strong as the mama bird around here but I could guess it would be around ten to fifteen assuming that all of them hit. Of course, the cheapness of the attacks and the lack of cool-down made it worth it. I was also sure I could imbue it with my tao to improve the attack.

I looked in the direction of the mall debating what I should do next. I hadn't told them when I would come back but it would be a problem if they were attacked while I was gone. Of course, I hadn't promised to protect them nor did they even agree to be my people. Even if that group wanted to attack them again they should take at least a day or two before they would return. I shook my head. I was just looking for excuses to do the thing I wanted to do anyway. I wanted to stay here and practice. I turned toward the city and pushed forward.

The next enemy I came across was another kind of dog. Where the last ones were metallic and tried to tank things these were more like cheetahs. They were ugly things with no fur and were heavily muscled. They were fast enough to make good target practice though. They revealed another problem with manipulating the energy directly. It was time and focus-consuming. Trying to split my focus between attacking them, avoiding their attacks, and creating the mental image of the attack I wanted was difficult. It was like trying to pat my stomach, rub my head, and do mental math at the same time. Furthermore, each failed dodge caused me to lose focus as pain shot through me.

I was forced to rely on Psychic Aegis which only gave me another thing to worry about. Thankfully my net energy gain was enough to allow me to progress to the next level. I decided to give myself three days to train before I made my way back to the mall. I was tempted to open a portal and just enter the mall but decided against it. I still couldn't hold the portal open long enough for other people to go through and I didn't want to deal with people expecting me to. It was better that they started walking anyway. Despite our agreement, I was shocked to find what had to be around two hundred people in the mall's parking lot. Of the two hundred around fifty held weapons while the rest kind of huddled together near the entrance.

I chuckled and shook my head as I made my way through the crowd. People looked more relieved to see me than I expected which made me feel much better. It only took me a few minutes to find Christopher and a trio of guards. Christopher had his trustee baseball bat slung over one shoulder.

"We were starting to worry that you weren't serious about your offer," Christopher spoke up first.

"I wasn't expecting so many people to be interested. Were all of these people in the mall?"

He shook his head. "No, we had around one hundred people. The other hundred and ten came from other enclaves nearby. The few that hadn't been approached by cultivators already were interested in the safety you offered. The others just didn't want to get dragged into the other town. Things aren't going well over there."

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"What do you mean?" I turned and did a quick scan of the people nearby and they looked well. There was a large mix of ages and races so it didn't seem like it was anything too horrid.

"The leaders of the commonwealth have set themselves up as some kind of kingdom. An unofficial hierarchy is in place where you are expected to pay the leadership."

I stared at him blankly before shaking my head. "They will have to work or pay with me too. I can't afford to protect people who won't do anything."

He held up a hand to stop me from continuing. "They don't always accept financial compensation and they don't offer any of the knowledge they got from the tutorial. Meaning that you either paid the way they wanted or you took your chances with the monsters."

My eyes widened when it hit me. A small portion of my killing intent leaked out and before I noticed I had taken a step in the direction the other group had fled in. "Easy kid."

I turned on him and was just about to lay into him when I caught sight of the people around us. Who now looked like they wanted to piss themselves. I took a breath and pulled my killing intent back inside. "I get it but there isn't much you can do about it. I don't know how many people your new city can hold but are you prepared to take everyone in? Are you able to protect them all while moving through the city? If you bring them with you what will you do with the people who don't want to join you?"

I sighed and shook my head. I mentally promised that I would go and check on it myself but for now, I had other things to worry about. I turned to the others and gave them a slight smile. "Are your people ready to leave now? Did you take everything you needed?"

"Yes and no we were able to grab most of the food stuff but the heaviest things had to stay behind. I don't assume you have any more space in that bag?" He gestured to it as if it were some kind of secret.

I raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Lead the way and I will gather as much as I can. Let's start with the biggest things."

I was quite impressed with the things they had and more so with the organization that Christopher had put in place. Without really discussing it he had set up their stuff in order of what they could afford to lose. I wasn't sure if he intended to sacrifice the people holding the worst things or if he expected to distract whatever they came across with the goods while everyone ran away. I decided not to ask. I managed to arrange around forty percent of it in my bag which guaranteed everyone would have food no matter what. When I agreed to return later for furniture and other creature comforts a chorus of cheers passed through the crowd.

Despite the fresh excitement, there was a clear anxiousness in the air. Everyone was delicately dancing around the truth but moving through the city in such a large group was going to be a problem. I wouldn't be able to use my aura to keep beasts away and I wouldn't be able to defend all sides with Aegis. "Christopher, how do you want to handle the defenses? I am going to deal with the majority of any threat that approaches but I can't deal with everything. Unless your people want to wait for me to fight."

"I know was thinking that we would circle the wagons and keep our gunmen in whatever fortifications we can find. We should be able to deal with any small fry before they get too close. Our melee fighters would hold the line if we come across anything too intense but ideally, you would deal with whatever is out there by then."

I considered the idea and had to admit it wasn't a bad one. It wasn't exactly what I would call a plan though but it was better than nothing. If I set up aegis in its wall form it should hold for at least ten minutes which should be enough for me to handle the threats as long as we didn't fight something crazy. We both agreed that the children and the elderly would sit in the middle of the group both in transit and when set up for safety. Lastly it was decided that I wouldn't travel with the group but on the rooftops above the streets. This was officially so I could see any threats before they arrived.

I also really wanted to pretend to be an action hero running along rooftops. It made me feel like Batman. We sat around and went over a few more details about what they could expect. We formed the start of the laws of Amara including that children wouldn't be required to work until they could cultivate but would still receive an education. The elderly and the sick would remain cared for but they would still need to find a way to contribute. Most likely as advisors or caretakers for the children. When I revealed that I had power there was a mixture of disbelief and a clamor for more equipment. Everything from coffee makers to alarm clocks.

We had to remind everyone that they would be responsible for carrying whatever it was that they had to stop people from running back into the mall. Once everyone had settled down again we finalized our plans and I opened a portal. I gave one final nod to Christopher whose shocked face only made me laugh. "Let's head out." Without waiting for a response I stepped through and reappeared on top of a gas station across the road. "The best spell I have." I smiled to myself as I scanned the road in front of us for any sign of monsters.

We had only traveled for an hour before the problems started. Unfortunately, most of the people here were levels one and two which meant they were dealing with base attributes. They were the same as they were before everything changed. Most of them were unhealthy. Even the ones that were in good shape weren't able to move through the debris the torn-up roads and cars forced the group to split up and take extra time. Since they weren't used to dealing with this they became easy targets for faster monsters. One elder man was nearly drug into a half-destroyed building by a metallic dog before I could take it down.

It was incredible that we made it to nightfall without anyone dying. I ordered everyone to stop outside of a warehouse when another failed attack nearly had a group of children disappear. I opened a portal and arrived in front of Christopher. "I am thinking that we set up inside. Arrange a few cots and blankets in a circle. I will keep watch but your people should stay alert."

"I think that would be best. Do you want to stay out here and watch the entrance or come inside?"

I hesitated before weighing my options. "I will stay out here. It will be a bit easier for me to fight if you all are safely squared away. Keep your people close to a wall. I am not sure we have the stuff to treat a gunshot wound. Also if you hear a battle break out stay inside. I don't think there is anything dangerous to me here but the last thing I want is to accidentally kill someone."

We continued for a few more minutes and clarified some last-minute details. It was decided that I would take up refuge in the building across from the warehouse. Christopher would have half his guards sleep while the other formed a makeshift firing line. I couldn't come up with a reason that it wouldn't work so I left them to it. I decided not to open another portal this time. With any luck, I would be able to get some mediation and cultivation in tonight. I settled into a spot where I could watch both the street and the warehouse.

I sat there for an hour before the boredom sunk in. I decided to take a breath and meditate on the Tao. Based on the information I managed to skim with my affinities it wasn't a matter of I could gain another strand. I was guaranteed to get as many as I wanted. As long as I put the time in my biggest problem would be gaining so many or gaining a set that didn't mesh well. Adamance and Lucidity came from the same class so those could either be developed separately or with the intent to combine later. Which meant I needed to focus. I closed my eyes and focused on my cultivation technique. Once I was ready I mentally reached out to the world around me. I focused on the sensation of being teleported. On the sigils that made up my spells on how the wind felt when it brushed past my skin and a million other things. Each sensation represented another potential avenue but none of them spoke to me. After what felt like two hours I decided to give up. I felt stupid waiting for something to "speak to me" but there wasn't much else to do. The Tao "couldn't be forced or rushed" whatever that meant. I would need to—my thoughts were interrupted as a man stepped or rather shambled down the far end of the street.