He found Grim flying a few hundred meters above Nova who seemed to be napping on top of a rocky outcropping.

[E - Uncommon] Matter Sprite (Lvl 92)

Holy shit that was fast. What the hell happened?

You know how I tugged on the bond? That was the fifth time I was about to call you but realized I didn't need to. First it started hunting down the higher level enemies and I almost called you until it started smashing through them. Then it started baiting them into each-other to hit multiple of them with a single spell. It's bait was good enough that I thought it was in danger though. Then it challenged an alpha but it just toyed with it jumping just out of reach and firing back when the alpha was stuck mid air so it couldn't dodge. Then it let one of the lizards get within a meter of it before the lizard exploded from the inside with a spell. Then I thought it had run out of mana, I had been keeping an approximate in my head and it's spell ended suddenly without killing the enemy. It looked around for you and I tugged. Remember all those batteries you fed it before though, when you met it and a few after that? Yeah apparently it still had those.

Huh… That seems a little too smart too fast, doesn't it?

Yeah, I have no idea what's happening. It's definitely a smart sprite, and also a mischievous rascal.

Well, just one more and we can evolve together. We should find a boss for it to fight though. Maybe a high level D grade alpha. Something big and slow so it's not in too much danger, but strong enough that there is a risk.

Yeah, not sure we've seen anything big and slow yet though. Got anything in mind?

Not right now, it's been almost 20 hours. We can find something later on. Does a sprite need to sleep?

I don't think so, but it seems to do so whenever it eats something new. It just ate the alphas body so it might be processing it.

Felix stowed Grim in his soul space and retrieved Nova, carrying them in his arms while it slept. Felix flew back to the tower and placed Nova on his old bed then walked over to the lectern to check the tower's current mana. He was just three days away from upgrading the materials to D grade and it was 5 days until the world council. Before then he wanted to finalize his evolution, but first he had to find a boss for his familiar to fight. He crafted batteries for a dozen hours or so until Nova woke up and started to hound him for attention. He had managed to make three batteries, which should be enough for Nova to kill something. For now he held on to them and he brought them with him as he teleported to Atalus.

From there they headed south east into the plains and Felix kept his eye out for rings of enemies from the air indicating a natural treasure. He found a few that would be an annoying matchup, birds and burrowing animals so, he avoided them and continued on. Eventually, he found the perfect creatures, Bison. He flew around and struck down the inner most rings with lightning bolts, leaving just the alpha alive. Then he flew down and placed Nova on the ground a few hundred meters from the creature.

[D - Special] Alpha Vampiric Bison (Lvl 162)

He handed Nova the three batteries he had crafted then flew away back towards Atalus, pulling Grim out in stealth mode when he was a few hundred meters up. Felix flew back towards the city hall building, the first one in the entire city, where he hoped to find Noah to talk about the world council meeting. He found Noah inside, exactly as he expected, standing over the long table in the middle staring down at a projected map of Atalus. Felix walked over to the opposite side of the table.

"Ah, the great Stormbringer graces us with his presence." Noah bowed.

Felix just looked at Noah with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself. The rumors about you have gotten much weirder. We've got the original residents of Tri-Peak who knew of you, then we've got many times more people who moved in from other tutorials, that never knew you. Somewhere in the chain, the rumors have grown to be a little ridiculous."

"Wait, we have non Tri-Peak residents now?"

"Yeah, not all tutorials had Major Cities, in fact it seems very few did. If there were 8 billion people and 100k to a tutorial, it seems it was exactly 0.01% of the tutorials that had Major Cities, since there are 8 of them. There were minor cities, a good number of those from what I hear, but they don't reappear outside of the tutorial."

"Woah, that number seems kind of small, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, seems like most cities got stuck on the money and population requirements. They also vary based on the upgrades and upgrade paths, so some people chose upgrade paths that were too hard to satisfy. Some tried to raid other settlements as the fastest way of increasing their population and income quickly, but that had other issues. Like people dying or abandoning the settlements."

"Huh. Any thoughts or preparation we should do before the World Council?"

"No preparation… I don't think. We seem to be in a pretty good spot so far. I suspect this one will just be introductions mostly, meet the other Major City leaders and whatnot. We'd like to establish trade routes with them, but they are really far away so that's not an immediate concern. I've got Benjamin, Will and Alan focused on making friends if they can. We also want to get access to any dungeons around them, so hopefully we can figure out transportation soon."

"Anything you need me to do?"

"Don't make enemies. Don't make people mad. If you are going to, don't associate yourself with our city."

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"Yikes, I'll do my best. What's up with these dungeons you mentioned by the way?"

"They're locked to level ranges, nothing above level 60 yet. Seems to be a catch up mechanic mostly at this point."

"Oh, that's unfortunate."

"Anything you need from me for the city?"

"Nope. We're looking at putting up the first wall soon, just want to finalize it's position."

"The first?"

"Yeah, based on the layout of the city, I'm thinking we nest the walls to separate subsections of the city. Then worst case, in a siege, we only lose one section at a time and have somewhere to fall back to."

"Doesn't that make the city feel too enclosed? Like a prison?"

"Normally, yes. I don't think you realize how big the city is going to be though. We are mostly ramping up on collecting materials right now, but think about this. There are 8 major cities. If, worst case, 30% of people died across the tutorials, that's still 700 million people per city, if they are distributed evenly. Now, people won't only live in major cities. After the restricted period, I'm sure minor cities will begin popping up all over the place. We want to plan for 500 million just to be safe though."

"That seems like way too many people to live in a city."

"The other consideration is that now people live much longer. If the birth rate slows dramatically, we would still have a growing population because life spans are now measured in centuries and millennia."

"Yikes. Good luck I guess."

"Luckily, I love what I do. Planning out the city, planning for the future, trying to mitigate potential losses and maximize gains, I love it. It's like a city building video game from back on earth. I can even erect certain buildings at will, though I'm missing the resources for some of them."

"Like what?"

"Wood, stone, metals. Specific variations of each. Mana can be used to replace them, but the ratios are way too high, it's just not worth it."

"How much?"

"Millions."

"I see. Can you spend some credits or whatever to dig out a big basement for this building?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Trust me?"

"Gonna need to give me more than that."

"How about this, if you don't think it was worth it when I'm done, I'll pay for it myself."

"Or you could just tell me whatever it is then I could plan around it."

"I could, surprises are fun though."

"Fine. It's done."

"Alright, I'll see you in a few days."

Felix headed down to the newly dugout basement, which looked like a large rectangular room had been cut straight out of the stone with a laser. He walked into the middle and got to work. This time, it only took him 3 days to construct a mana engine. It was the exact same size and shape as the last one. Having the design finalized and the experience from the first model made the entire thing much faster. He was mostly limited by how quickly he could collect and solidify mana, but over the course of the project, he had gotten much faster. He made a mental note to continue practicing in future so became even easier, then he might be able to use it in combat. He was a little worried Grim and Nova might need him, but Grim had never pulled on their soul-bond so he figured they were fine.

Once he was done, he started up the engine then observed it for a few minutes to make sure it worked as intended. Then he left the basement for the first time in 3 days and squinted at the bright main floor of the central building. Noah wasn't there and the building was completely empty as far as he could tell. He quickly verified that the city management screen registered the mana being collected then flew off in the direction of Grim and Nova's soul-bond. They were hundreds of kilometers north of where he had left them, well into the forest. Felix wasn't worried though because both of his soul-bonds were still very close to each-other. He flew off into the forest and found Grim flying high above a clearing in the trees.

You guys made quite the journey. I expected you to ping me days ago.

Yeah, me too. Your sprite is as much a monster as you are it seems. It fought the bison, was a difficult fight, almost entirely because Nova decided not to use spells.

Wait, what? How'd they kill it then?

With claws and fangs. I was a little worried at first, it got hit a few times, but it's pretty durable. Once it got the hang of fighting with it's body though, it tore through the bison. I was going to ping you after the fight, but then it ate the bison, tearing it into bite sized pieces in a rather horrific way. Then it started napping so I figured I'd just wait until it was done. Well, as soon as it woke up, it sprinted off to the north and started hunting down natural treasures. Nova's managed to find 2 so far, it just ate a large gemstone a few hours ago so should wake up any minute.

[E - Uncommon] Matter Sprite (Lvl 99)

Damn, only level 99? Guess we let it keep going until it hits a hundred.

What have you been up to?

Made a mana engine for Atalus, turns out they can use mana in place of materials too.

Same size?

Yeah.

That was fast then.

Yeah, this one was much faster.

So what's next?

Let Nova hit 100 then we buy the tower upgrade and evolve. Then we have the world council meeting.

You talk to Noah already?

Yeah, he just wants to make friends right now. He figures this one will mostly be introductions.

Makes sense. Have you figured out how you're going to present yourself?

What do you mean?

As the Stormbringer or as the leader of Atalus?

Oh good question. Honestly, I have no idea. Probably the leader of Atalus, I don't really want to associate myself with the rumors.

So what's the story with the Stormbringer then? They just didn't show?

Yeah I guess. If there's a vote, I might be forced to use the Stormbringer's votes though.

So what's the plan then?

Figure it out when we get there.

I can pretend to be the Stormbringer if need be.

I thought about that. I think it's too risky. The world leaders and their entourages could easily have some detection skills or something to see through the ruse.

Oh shit you're right. Not worth the risk. Winging it it is. You gonna bring Nova?

Probably. I don't see why not.

It might not behave.

Like what? Jump across our heads?

You sure it won't try and kill people at the meeting?

Honestly, I'm not expecting them to be high enough level for Nova to care. I'll tell it not to kill anyone before hand. I also don't think The System will let anyone hurt each-other. It would be kind of problematic if people just started killing each-other for their cities at the meetings.

Oh right. I forgot about the system for a second there. Yeah it's probably fine then.

Felix placed Grim in his soul space and dropped to the ground next to Nova. He waited another half hour or so for his familiar to wake up who was immediately very excited to see him, jumping up to his shoulder and nuzzling into his neck.

Even though it looks like a cat, it acts more like a dog.

He activated his teleport back to the tower and appeared on it's roof. He quickly checked the mana engine which was filling up, but seemed stable, then flew off into the jungle. He deposited Nova near some large familiar animals with a different coloration.

[E - Uncommon] Royal Parroukan (Lvl 117)

These Parroukan were mostly purple with some white feathers here and there. Nova looked up to Felix for permission then pounced into the fray. Felix didn't bother taking Grim out to supervise as Nova was already killing monsters just as high as either of them could with a backup supply of mana. He communicated to the familiar that he could come and help if it asked through the soul-bond, but he wasn't sure if they understood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .