Near the border, repairs were well underway on the demolished lookout tower. As much as demons were individualistic, their self-centered instincts all evaporated away when participating in an activity related to war. The lighter-weight demons were hard at work erecting scaffolding, carrying lighter materials, setting more delicate parts, and doing more exacting carpentry tasks. A contingent of heavy-duty, large-animal demons had also shown up, complete with demon-variant beasts of burden. Those were moving bigger stones, digging trenches, and generally brute-forcing the main structure of the tower into being.

Among them, possessing just enough intelligence to keep his head down, was the bear-demon. One of the advantages to being the only survivor of a battle was the fact that only he could report on what had happened. His statement had been that a single gargantuan human had appeared, leveled the tower, and killed every demon there. He figured that the bigger and badder the human, the more understandable it would be that he was found sprinting away from the battle.

He had got in trouble, but if anything, the new setup suited him better. As a lookout, he was terrible. As a lifter and carrier of big heavy objects, he was tolerable. Good, even. And he was much more comfortable around bigger, stronger, and on average, mentally slower peers. It was a good deal. And, for the first time in a long time, he was having a pretty okay time. Some of his days could even be called good.

As he stopped for a drink of water from the large barrel where the demons took breaks, he was content. He wasn’t overjoyed or even particularly happy, but everything was fine. It was then that he saw the soil shift, slightly. That had been happening lately. Ever since death had arrived at his tower literally from below him, he had become a bit paranoid about the dirt. Things as insignificant as shifting dust would make him jumpy. It was something he was learning to control. Especially because the last thing he needed was the kind of the trouble that would come from false alarms.

He shook his head, drank more water, and stretched. It was time to get back to work. Before he could, the dirt shifted again, this time a few yards away, closer to where the bosses of the dig were gathered.

The bear wasn’t smart. He knew that. He was pretty sure he had gotten his lookout job because one of his old commanders had moved up the authority chain and thought it was funny to put him places he didn’t fit well. He tried his best, but decision-making was never his strong suit. And this was a big decision. He could tell them, but it might be nothing, and then he’d get yelled at or beaten. Or he could not tell them, and maybe get killed by the all-powerful shovel human.

He thought hard, and eventually chose to risk it. He’d warn the others, and take whatever risks that imposed. But by the time he raised his knitted brow towards his commanding officers to tell them, he found himself looking at the shovel human, his shovel raised to shoulder height and standing almost completely still.

Then, suddenly, the shovel moved, and there were no more commanding officers. The bear ran.

—

After ambushing the commanding officers, Matt momentarily disregarded the rest of the troops, instead cutting various struts and supports that Survivor’s Reflexes was assuring him were very important to keep a lot of heavy stone not suddenly falling down. Once he had destroyed them, an eerie rain of silent rocks injured or killed several demons before the first shots of warning went out.

There were a lot of demons here, but very few of them were combat specialized. Matt danced in and out of their blows for the most part, and found his armor was more than up to the task of dealing with the few odd attacks that found their way through his defense. After a few moments, the tower was a realm of corpses and rubble once more.

“Matt, look. You have to see this.” Lucy laughed, clutching her sides. She extended her finger outward, pointing at a large ursine creature rapidly scrambling away on all fours. “I scanned it. It’s the same bear.”

“I’m so glad Artemis isn’t here. We have to let it go again, right?” Matt laughed as he took a moment to brush various chunks of dirt, rock, and demon out of his hair.

“It’s a bad idea. But yes, yes we do. She’d never understand how funny it is.”

As they walked away, Matt felt a buzzing in his pocket, which he immediately investigated, only to find it was his credit token. During the shopping spree with the old man, he had finally learned how to read the actual amount of currency in the thing. The meaning was still mostly indecipherable to him, since he had no feel for what local money would actually buy outside of proprietary coffee plants and priceless demonic animal hides. But he knew what the number was before, and it had gone up significantly.

Somehow, the credit token knew he had done work on behalf of the human race. And more importantly, it had paid him for it. The church now owed him slightly more money.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Huh.” Matt said while lost in thought. “That’s really interesting.”

—

The next two towers fell easily. Whatever the bear was relaying to its superiors, it apparently either wasn’t that a tower-toppling human mole was on the loose, or they had no answer for Matt’s particular tactic. The nice thing about being in a wasteland was that none of the demons had much reason to leave their heavy stone towers, so each time, the vast majority of them were inside as he toppled their towers.

There were always a few who survived the demolition uninjured, and they were usually battle-lord ranked. But where the last battle lord had given him a lot of trouble, that was because he was fighting in a constrained space against an opponent with a vastly higher STR score. Now, with a whole new equipment set in a whole new scenario, Matt was absolutely dominating.

Without any particular reason to hide it, Matt was able to put his new momentum-redirecting movement skill to work. When a tough enemy made themselves known, he’d charge straight at them, only to shift to the side at a 90-degree angle to avoid their carefully timed initial strike. That was usually all it took. The old man knew the title that Matt had stolen from him well, and his gift was perfect. The combination of the shovel being an anti-magic hunk with the fact that it was positively overweight was absolutely killer.

One enemy, a large high-VIT tank that resembled a chicken, was so surprised by his sudden change of motion that it caught a full-force scooping swing to the face. Its head flew so far into the distance that Matt and Lucy didn’t feel comfortable going after it.

With each tower, Matt was picking up achievements. Apparently, there were enough unique survival qualities about any given demolition to warrant an achievement of some kind, and each was also apparently too big for the system instance to fully ignore. Matt had never realized how much the Gaian system instance probably leaned on mana shortages to delay his rewards, but even with the Ra’Zor system was actively gunning for him, he was still making out quite handsomely.

“So do you think that’s enough of a crumb trail to leave?” Lucy asked. “We don’t really know if they are coming after you, in the first place.”

“Yes, it is, and no, we don’t. But I really hope they are. If they don’t believe us, or want a change, I don’t think there’s really anything to save here anymore.”

—

“And you are asking me in all seriousness if there are ghosts of some sort caught in the plinths? That we caught these ghosts that no-one has ever heard from before?”

Brennan slightly bowed his head. “Forgive me, counselor. That was the invader’s claim. It seemed far-fetched to us, as well.”

Next to him, Artemis nodded. “It seemed important to confirm the claim itself, your holiness, before we gave chase. If he had told you something different…”

“I see. I approve,” Alder nodded. “No, I’m afraid he never said anything of the sort to us. His demands were all related to power. I believe he thought he could use his good behavior thus far as a crowbar to gain an audience, and then use that to hold our government hostage. I’m only glad that we have sufficient strength,” he motioned towards the lines of guards in the room, “to reject such demands.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “So we did the talking part. Are we gonna chase this guy? I have a new sword, and it needs a fight.”

“Derek!” Artemis shouted. “This is the High Counselor! Show some damn respect!”

“No, no, he’s quite right, Artemis.” The high counselor nodded at Derek, approvingly. “Sometimes words do delay needed action. And action has never been more needed here. If what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard of this invader are true, he’s powerful. Powerful enough to cause quite a lot of damage if left unchecked.”

“We would be glad to check it, Counselor,” Brennan said. “With your leave, we can be on our way almost immediately. Seconds seem to matter here, sadly.”

“Yes, yes, go. And know that we have rated this threat quite highly. I think you will find that success will bring rewards far above the levels even you are used to, Commander Brennan.”

Derek pumped his elbow in joy, as Brennan nodded. “I’d do it out of duty, but the rewards are always appreciated. Come, Derek. Come, Artemis.”

With that, Brennan turned on his heel and walked out of the room, Derek and Artemis following immediately behind him. They walked for two or three minutes before Artemis gave an all-clear sign. They weren’t being followed.

“What's the story, Brennan? Did that thing light up?” Derek asked, trotting along with the others.

“Oh, yes. Before it crumbed, it lit red for almost everything Alder said. The reward is real, though. Apparently, he really wants Matt dead.”

Artemis winced. “So it’s really true? Matt’s invisible friend is real, and the Church is enslaving them? How? Why?”

“I think how is easier. Matt isn’t normal, Artemis. He resists all sorts of assessment spells. You know that as well as anyone.” Brennan said. He wasn’t wrong. Artemis had, in private, bemoaned how very little she could learn about Matt with her skills. Brennan’s opponent assessment skills didn’t work quite the same way, but outside of his direct combat-related skills that triggered during his brief fight with Matt, he mostly came up blank as well. “I’m doubting those plinths work as well on him. But for someone from here, who interacts with the system here normally? They probably work better. They must, or we’d know.”

Artemis nodded. The fact that the old blacksmith had a truth-teller stone in the first place was unbelievable, to the point where she suspected that his entire home was packed with treasures he himself had long since lost interest in and forgotten about. If it had signalled orange when they asked about the guardians, that would have been one thing. A half-truth of some kind. But signalling red meant it had detected a full, knowing contradiction of the truth.

“As for the why, I think you know. Your entire job is keeping people like me in check.” He grabbed her hand as they ran, squeezing it reassuringly. “I know that has changed between us over time, but what the Church calls organizing has always felt controlling. If we had guidance outside what the Church wants to give us, people to talk to, it would be that much harder for them to do that.”