So my realm is on the move now, and I have no way to steer it with any regularity. What I do have is safer aura sight, as I no longer have to walk up to the edge of my realm. The other thing it lets me do is pick up trace amounts of essence from my surroundings. It’s mostly junk but even junk placed in the correct place in my realm lets me replace it with pure essence. Unfortunately for me I can only use the pure essence to raise my level for the current run only. This is unfortunate because my low affinities prevent me from having enough space to even contain a farm. This in turn makes it increasingly apparent that for how impressive my starting point is, and for a low tier individual like myself the inability to down tier my spaces is a major limiting factor.
With that out of the way, or more accurately setting an alarm for the essence collection as it’s not that frequent. I then enable the forum for the first time. After another episode with an angel that is acting uppity, who I had to introduce to the void to get them to stop for long enough for me to override for a bypass. I also change it from no letters to minimal awe in the internal records the angels are using. Then it took several more rounds of me counting down for them to get the message, then it took several more for me to realize that automating the skill to just get them out of the way if they are not going to stop was the way to go. It did not work so I stopped the trigger. I switch gears to make them train my angel affinity while I shut down and wait for them to stop. Turns out that they do not like it when their abilities and presence cost more than fifty percent more.
As the angels get bored intermittently, I aggressively use the save draft feature to get my current situation up. This lets me get back to the original goal of writing my introduction, which as a general rule is expected to be factually honest yet totally biased. That way, when you meet another, you can corroborate their claims or contradict them. I do check how bad Colic would be for that purpose and it’s pretty bad. I notice that the corroboration sanction is pretty bad so I start looking for a support group. When I don’t find one for my specific issue I start a petition to open one for awe overload. It’s crazy popular, and I have to close out of the forums for a bit as a demon showed up. After a couple rounds of this debacle I get trace amounts of awe affinity, which I use to create an awe slime. After replacing the void shunt with the slime spawn the entire interface just crashes.
After taking the crash as my cue to take a nap, when I wake back up it’s available again. Well me and my trigger are under quarantine but that works for me, so I update my status with the improved situation. Then an angel shows up, and soon after awe slimes start spawning in. Eventually the infestation limit is reached and an angel of death shows up, though I only find that out once it has kicked out the other angels and slew all of the slimes. I receive a bit of its essence as an apology I think, before it leaves, and proceeds to lambaste the other angels in the referencing me section. I stop for a moment to discover that my realm is back in dungeon form and has been picked up in another minor realm.
I switch back to the forums and start writing a new piece that I titled a “tutorialist’s conundrum.” Start by saying I walked into this place hoping for the introductory period to not suck and then go into the practicality of realm boundary and defense before saying that you would need more of both to run a space for training. Then I switch to the school system in place here and note that its remedial services and training suck. I then make an argument for the remedial section to be held in house by the angels, with the added benefit of making the intro pack available before we wander off, then once we have the basics down we then get sent off to the schools for refinement on our chosen style. I then preface this by noting how limiting only having schooling in one field limits you to only that field, so this should be a part of a personal improvement and refinement methodology. I then finish it off by saying that if they have a better Idea to let us know in the comments below.
I clock out after my post to avoid being awebanged by another angel. I feel through my aura an amount of banging consummate to a gaggle of troublemakers causing trouble in my holding space. I decide to take another nap as there is nothing paying attention nearby and I need to remain well rested for all the arguments that I have to win now. When I wake up it looks like I’m not making any such arguments as I’ve fallen into an orbit with a couple other lords. I start looking for their chatter signature so I can join in. “Looking for our chatter signature?” One asks.
“Yeah, I was wanting to know what I’m getting involved with,” I reply to the other party.
He sends me an invite to the meeting room, and I arrive, to a room mostly filled with monsters. Thankfully there isn’t a dragon present but a much more eclectic assortment of monsters. I think I’m the first Nem present, so I’m permitted to not directly group up with the other groups. I hear the same voice I heard in the void and I see the primary lord of this place, an undead grandmaster. “You recognized and remained surprisingly calm,” revealing the armored figure to be the same one that asked if I was looking for the chatter signature.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The gid leader also has walked over and the grandmaster backs off, watching the interaction. “How did you get a bind for one of our own?”
“Off of a common pack, placed him in my dungeon and then a dragon trounced me. He died at the hands of a cultist of which I only managed to slay one of the three.” The gid mulls over my comment before turning around and leaving. The hive ambassador, grandmaster, the grandmaster’s aides, the other divid present, and the Orc cultists give me a once over. This finally gives me a count of the groups fifty one undead lords, for which ten are tier two. Ten Orc lords and ten Pyg lords of which the latter are absent. One hive queen’s ambassador and three dwarven chiefs round out the monsters while fifteen lords of men, seven oni, and one kitsune round out the divid.
“I, Lord Tieachong have called this assembly together, due to the presence of several new applicants. First up is Lord Ragnar O'Neil, Character witnesses.” He looks like he has taken a lot of abuse, though I still thumbs him down.
“Jack, you do not have any voting power here!” Ragnar manages to shoot himself in the foot immediately.
“Well, luckily for you, we do have an open slot for you. Dismissed,“ And with that his realm has been vassalized to a tier one rogue undead. “Well the other five are tier zero rogue undead, which leaves us Lord Jack Walker, of which Lord Laogou has met before. What is your ability to work from a pseudo-dungeon?” I reveal a copy of the appropriate biomes and the grandmaster sighs.
There is a bunch of chatter behind the scenes and it was determined that they didn’t actually have a good spot for me, but as I still had my space from before I will be permitted to be placed in an unclaimed space. That means no towns or trade outposts that currently exist. “I’ think being on an existing road would make it easier to access, though I’m curious how often the other divid present use the roads.”
“Then here, it’s in a place hard for us to secure when we are not marching though, but has access to a mix of groups.” He gives me a local map and it’s a chaotic mess, but I don’t feel anywhere else better when the grandmaster tests for other places.
The Hive ambassador’s wing buzzes out a peppy tune. “Well looks like I will be getting guests shortly,” I pause for a moment, “I wonder if safe zones can be used on the surface?”
I pull out my schematic for the safe zone and use the same technique that Ragnar wanted to use on my walls. It works poorly. My realm has slotted itself into location and has begun digging the dungeon. It is either digging much faster this time, or I have a different frame of reference outside of it. Soon the yellow gate is active again and it starts building the area beyond it. Unlike the upper set the lower area is initially horizontal in nature, mostly due to the spatial requirements of my elven enclave. I poke at the anchors at the edge of their enclave and the floor separates in two. Apocynum gets their enclave behind my ‘final’ boss fight and builds it around the new anchorite core I’ve created.
The meeting adjourned for the chorus, of which I got summarily separated from the others of this realm and got summarily awebanged. I cannot say I got anything else done, and was summarily cheated of the advantage of doing the chorus on this day. For all of my troubles I only got a minor bit of resistance to awe, and a massive hangover. I check into the forums, use my newfound awe resistance to surreptitiously dislodge some of the trackers in such a way that they don’t get replaced, before checking my s-mail. There are two letters, the first is a functionary memorandum on the upgrade I will receive if I reach tier three or reside within another’s realm that meets an exhausting criterion. The other is an invitation to my father’s friends. I have to poke around in it because inheriting my father’s enemies is foolish, especially when it can be avoided.
Most of the others have been reading up on the troubles I’ve been facing, and after confirming that no-one can interact with me behind my shielding, use the sacrificial ability on one of my damage I’ve previously taken, of which it lands on the lesser of the air magic. I’m without my armaments for seven hours. After my situation stabilizes the other one will only disable my weapon for five hours. The ability to remove a damage stack at will, does seem more useful than what the documentation said, though it is being compared to invulnerability, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnikinesis.
In the meantime the big grandmaster has expanded my safezone to thinly cover the entire city he’s building and has set up a rotation for who wants to enter my realm. I mostly ignore it, as it is still stabilizing up there to its final form. On the other hand their plans didn’t account for the hive deciding to show up. The Gid also showed up though their selection consisted of the undesirables, so either they are rid of a problem or they get treasure. One of the Orc tribes challenged me and this time made it to the dungeon; they also lost to the slimes and only gave me a pittance in racial essence. The Pyg also occasionally show up and make it their mission to die in the dungeon, for when they enter they just don’t leave. They are stymied by the gate and instead set up their camp in the room before it. They sometimes accidentally take the challenge but then fail to undertake it, which reveals that it is in fact time sensitive, though it is on the order of an hour. It also reveals that I get to keep the wealth that would be the Pyg’s if it does not go claim it. This is all to say that I’ve arrived at an equilibrium, so I’m here for the long haul, unless things change.