⟐ Chapter 3
I arrived at my [King’s Core] shortly after, and I was incredibly curious to see what kind of a unit the one I’ll be able to [summon] will be, and so I went and looked at its description first.
[Nuetromoid Basic (Tier 1 Common) (Cost: 100 [Gold] and 1 [Soul]): Nutrimoid Basics are the simplest unit of the newly created Neutrumoid race. This most basic of units are a mix of supporting and fighting units, able to both gather, build, and fight. Though they excel in almost all aspects against their peers of the same tier, they possess no will and can only follow orders like a machine. Stats: Strength: 30, Constitution: 30, Agility: 30, Dexterity: 30, Intelligence: 30, Wisdom: 30, Willpower: 30. Skills: Basic Neutrumoid Body (D), Minor Touch of Disintegration (D), Minor Touch of Creation (D), Minor Touch of Reformation (D), Basic Perfect Technique (D), Simple Material Absorption (D), Beginner’s Construction (D).]
Newly created? That explains it, that's why I have no prior knowledge even after scouring through my memories and even tutorial knowledge about my race gave no cigar making things a lot harder than what it should be. But even so, it doesn't matter now, and I can only move on from this revelation.
Going back, compared to my stats I am about ten times more powerful, and their stats are lower than the bear I fought earlier. Though considering this is a mixed type unit capable of being a supporting and fighting unit at the same time, I say its overall value is much higher than the bear, though it seems like it doesn’t have any will of its own and I may need to micro-manage them but hopefully they can understand commands fairly easily.
Preparing to summon my first-ever unit in this world, I took a look at how much [Souls] and [Gold] I have.
[[Gold]: 300, [Souls]: 6.]
It looks like I can [summon] three of them, and without wasting any more time, I commanded the [King’s Core].
“[Summon] three [Neutrulite Basics].”
[It will cost 300 [Gold] and 3 [Souls] my liege, do you agree?]
“Yes.”
[As you will my liege.]
And not soon after, three blinding lights erupted and there they stood. One, two, three, naked mannequin-looking humanoids standing in front of me. They were all celestial white just like me but unlike me who retained some human features like nose, eyes, and mouth, they had none and were just plain blank obloid.
They were also smaller than me by a meter making me tower above them as if they were children, well, aren’t they kind of like my children? I was alone for most of my life since I was a child back on earth. I never really connected with others aside from some friends and a few best friends. And my romantic life? There’s nothing to really talk about as they all failed. Even though I can be considered as the father of the three, seeing their non-responsive stance as if they were just newly crafted statues didn’t provide any other feelings aside from one you might feel when getting new toys.
After my initial observation and testing of how to command them, their behavior is noticeably artificial yet their movements are natural and just like that of humans but efficient in every minor movement. Finishing my initial tests, I moved my focus back on the [King’s Core].
“Show me my buildable [Structures].”
[As you will my liege.]
[Structures:
Tier 1: Basic Neutrumoid Main Headquarters (Cost: 5,500 [Gold] and 1,000 [Neutrium]) (0/1), Small Neutrumoid Constructor Factory (Cost: 4,500 [Gold] and 500 [Neutrium]) (0/1), Small Neutrumoid Barracks (Cost: 1,000 [Gold] and 250 [Neutrium]) (0/4), Neutrumoid Small Repair Station (Cost: 600 [Gold] and 200 [Neutrium]) (0/8), Small Neutrium Storage (Cost: 400 [Gold] and 150 [Neutrium]) (0/10), Basic Neutrumoid Guard Tower (Cost: 300 [Gold] and 100 [Neutrium]) (0/20), Basic Neutrumite Domain Expander (Cost 200 [Gold] and 50 [Neutrium] (0/50).]
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I was a bit shocked to see that the cost for building my structures isn't quite the same as the one I saw on the tutorial. Yes, it said there that some races need different types of material for their structures, but I haven’t seen one that needed only a single type of material and the general [Gold]. Is [Neutrium] a unique resource of my race? If so, how can I get it? [Kings] in this game aren’t given almost anything in the beginning except the generous 100 [Souls] at the start so that we can have a single skill of our choice but other than that we’re forced to build our foundations from scratch.
I wanted to know what type of material this [Neutrium] is, I was going to ask the [King’s Core] but instead I got an idea. I instead decided to command the [Neutrulite Basics] to “gather” [Neutrium].
“You three, gather [Neutrium] for me.”
Not soon after my command, the three [Neutrulite Basics] heeded my command and started going to the nearest tree within them. Each one of them chose a different tree and a short moment later they raised their hand, and it began to emit a bluish glow. The part of the body of the tree that was facing the glowing palms of the [Neutrulite Basics] began to melt and turn to something like liquid as its color faded till it’s pure white, after that it was absorbed by them.
I inspected both the palm of the [Neutrulite Basic] and the white goo that it absorbed.
[Neutrulite Basic has used [Minor Touch of Reformation (D)]: This skill reforms low-level materials into something the user desires. This skill is limited to turning low-level materials into [Neutrium] and is currently being used towards a tree.]
[[Neutrium]: The basic material used by the Neutrulites. It possesses highly adaptive and absorption qualities but is impossible to process, requiring special processing tools to be turned into anything useful. This is the basic core material of [Neutrulites] and is currently being reformed and harvested from a tree by a [Neutrulite Basic].
I understand it now. Basically, this material is my special resource, and for now, the only material resource I need.
This revelation made me smile. Only needing two resources and having the ability to take this resource from any source is a logistical heaven. This means I only need to manage two resources for everything, and going by my units, they don’t require any daily consumption too, making things simpler and better. Well, I still need to find out how much a single [Neutrulite Basic] can gather per hour, but inspecting them further.
[[Neutrulite Basic] current status: (Gathering). [Neutrium] Gathered: 2/50]
Approximating their gathering speed, I would get around 25 per hour per unit. There is a resource cap though, making my first priority is to have storage for [Neutrium].
I didn’t have much to do other than wait in this location but just watching the [Neutrulite Basics] stand with their hands raised for two straight hours, isn’t exactly entertaining and productive. Also, I still needed [gold] for building the storage so I went out to explore for a bit.
Strolling through the forest was quite enjoyable, I inspected a lot of things while doing so and learned a bit about the available resources that could be of use here. Mostly mushrooms and plants that have different properties that could be cultivated and processed for either self-use or to be sold to others. The latter being harder to do as it means I need somebody to buy the products from me. And considering my quite unique race, that might be a bit harder to do.
Mushrooms and plants aren’t the only thing I encountered though as I also met some beasts. Some fled from seeing me, and I didn’t bother doing anything to them except inspecting them a little but there were beasts that were quite aggressive, and in return for their insolence, I gave them the gift of mercy from suffering.
[You have killed [Enhanced Forest Primate]! You receive 50 [Gold] and 1 [Soul]!]
…
[You have killed [Enhanced Wood Beetle]! You receive 50 [Gold] and 1 [Soul]!]
…
[You have killed [Enhanced Elite Fairy Wolf]! You receive 300 [Gold] and 5 [Souls]!]
…
All in all, after two hours I gained nine hundred and fifty [Gold] and twenty-one [Souls] for killing nineteen beasts in my brief stroll in the woods. I returned back to my [King’s Core] shortly after that.
After returning, I saw my three [Neutrulite Basics] standing still, and a brief inspection showed that they had filled their capacity and were just awaiting further orders. I wasted no more time and went to open my build [structures] and chose to build the [Small Neutrium Storage].
[That would cost 400 [Gold] and 150 [Neutrium] my liege, do you agree?]
“Yes.”
And shortly after that, the [Neutrulite Basics] held both their hands in front of them and dropped all the [Neutrium] in their storage.
The [Neutrium] disappeared as quickly as it had come, and after the [King’s Core] asked me where to put the [Small Neutrium Storage], a blinding light erupted in front of my eyes. And from within the shining rays, I saw the silhouette of the structure and not so soon after, it was completed.
It stood tall at about ten meters in height and was pure celestial white. The outer appearance was shaped like a cylindrical storage unit with a diameter of about fifteen meters. It was polished and shining, and there was nothing much else other than a floating spherical ball that glowed in a bluish hue above the center of it, and there was no entrance or exit either but instead there’s this module looking thing stuck to each of its cardinal directions. And below it, the ground and anything connected to it turned into polished white-looking concrete. Its radius spanned five meters away from the structure and made it look as if it had cleansed the earth of organic life.
And with that, I had my first structure in this world.