Ray stood on the edge of his territory, staring at the five-story office building that Derrick was nervously eyeballing. He turned to where the engineer stood next to Nyx, just as doubtful that what he had proposed was going to work.
“Are you absolutely sure this is going to work?” Ray asked.
Derrick shrugged, “No. Not even close. But if it does it could be a game changer. And I figured for a first test we may as well do something that would impact the defensibility of our home.”
After a day of rest, and resummoning Nyx, Derrick had met back up with Ray to propose a project. Something that would benefit everyone in the territory, but was going to be difficult if not impossible to achieve. A wall. A wall of immense proportions with enchanting that would make it practically impervious to damage. The {STRUCTURAL ENGINEER} had done his research, consulted the shop keeping Talla, and found examples in the System shop. It was more than possible, in fact, it was commonplace to create such defensive emplacements. What was challenging was the resources needed to do so. Resources that they, just so happened, to have in spades in the form of completely unused buildings ringing the entirety of their territory.
“So let me get this straight,” Ray summarized, “You want me to target an entire building with my {ALTER II} ability and change it into a wall segment. Then you are going to have your engineering team carve enchantments into that wall, followed up by Rivea activating those enchantments. And you want to do this for the entire border of the territory. Did I get that right?”
Derrick nodded, “Yeah. Nailed it in one Ray. But here’s the kicker, it's going to be loud. That’s going to draw in every undead for a long ways and that's why I had you bring every fighter we had.”
Ray turned from his friend and looked at the gathering of people behind them. Between the Orkin war leaders and Rivea, they had mustered almost two hundred people with various combat abilities. Including several magic users, all of the Aelvin {RANGERS}, and two dozen Orkin {BERSERKER}’s. A common class for their race.
“Alright,” he said finally. “Let’s do this. No sense in standing around with our thumbs up our asses.”
Ray focused on the building in front of them, slowly painting the entire thing in his mind with {ALTER II}. Once he had a good idea of the building fixated in his mind, he built an idea of what the wall would look like. Based on his conversations with Derrick that was easy enough. It still took several minutes, and he began sweating profusely, but the System did what he wanted and gave him a prompt:
{ALTER STRUCTURE}
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ALTER THIS STRUCTURE?
POWER - 100
Y / N
Ray winced at the cost but selected yes.
ALTERATION FAILED.
SETBACK REQUIREMENTS NOT MET.
“Setback requirements?” Ray muttered loud enough for Derrick to hear. “What the hell is a setback?”
The engineer cleared his throat, “That’s when a building is too close to a border. I hadn’t thought it about it, but to be frank it’s probably not a bad thing. You don’t want a horde to just pop out between the buildings and be right at the wall. Set it back… oh a block or so to set up a proper killing field.”
Ray did as he asked and was met with a new message asking if he wanted to accept the changes. Clicking yes, the entire group watched in amazement as the building dissolved into a grey goo, flowing down the street behind them where it reassembled itself into a thirty-foot tall, ten-foot wide wall in the middle of the street.
“That… was fucking awesome!” Derrick said, turning to Ray with excitement. That excitement quickly turned to worry, “Are you okay?”
Ray waved down his concern, but he looked horrible. He was short on breath, pale, and sweating profusely. “That took a lot out of me. And it cost a hundred Power. Its going to take a long time to get the segments done unless I can get more.”
“That cost a hundred fucking Power?” Derrick asked, paling. “And you spent it? For fucks sake man, using five Power repeatedly can give me a headache. No wonder you don’t look so good. Let’s head back to-“
“Horde approaching!” called out Rivea, interrupting Derrick.
The two turned as their group of fighters surged forward to create a fighting line just in time to see a hundred or so undead turn the corner. Ray wasn’t too concerned, up until the Juggernaut following the horde came into sight as well.
“Fuck,” he grunted, swaying on his feet. “I need to get in there and help.”
But Nyx had other ideas. She walked to his side and pushed him over onto the ground. As he cursed her, she gave him the side eye. “Enough. You spent more power in five minutes than most do in three days. You are exhausted. Sit. Watch your people work. Between Rivea and the Orkin, it will be over quickly. You need to start relying on the people around you Ray. If you don’t you are going to find yourself in a situation you won’t get out of. Then we both die,” she lectured.
Ray couldn’t disagree with anything his canine companion had said. Sighing, he sat back on his haunches and watched his people maneuver into the horde. Led by Rivea and Dax, the melee fighters formed a wedge with the Drake on the point. Volka, Dax’s mate and fellow Orkin war leader, had pulled out a massive bow from somewhere and was directing the ranged fighters.
He flinched as Dax screamed a war cry just as the wedge of fighters slammed into the undead… and obliterated them. The fight lasted all of six seconds as the various fighters leveraged their classes to simply annihilate the undead. There were no uncommon undead in the grouping, just the massive form of the Juggernaut in front of them. The huge undead didn’t last much longer, as Volka directed her ranged fighters to target the creature.
Unleashing a barrage of arrows, a few fireballs, and even a lightning bolt, the Juggernaut roared in pain as the attacks slammed into it, staggering the massive undead. If that had been all, Ray would have thought that the group would have been in trouble. Much to his surprise, however, a perfectly coordinated turn of the melee fighters had them smashing into the legs of the monstrosity just after the last ranged attack hit. This perfect coordination resulted in the Juggernaut tipping perilously to one side before losing its balance and slamming into the ground with a hefty thud.
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From there it was just busy work as the melee group dismembered the creature.
{HORDE DEFEATED}
REWARD
50 NEX TO EACH PARTICIPANT
50 NEX TO TERRITORY RULER
{UNCOMMON UNDEAD DEFEATED}
REWARD
10 NEX TO EACH PARTICIPANT
50 NEX TO TERRITORY RULER
“I got… NEX for doing nothing?” Ray asked incredulously.
Derrick shrugged, “You get credits when your group does something noteworthy. What is defined as noteworthy is up for some debate, as we have no idea what the System views as such. So we are just happy when we get a reward for something,” he explained. “The fighters though, they get group rewards and rewards per kill. Double dipping looks fun, but I prefer my designing and building thank you very much.”
“I can’t blame you. Fighting sucks at the best of times,” Ray agreed. He checked his stats quickly but didn’t see any change. “I just hope I get some kind of benefit for people fighting for me. Otherwise getting over the level nine hump is going to be hard.”
The engineer’s eyes went wide, “You’re level nine already? Holy hell! I’m five and the highest level out of everyone at the base so far. That’s crazy Ray!”
“If that’s the case, then yeah it really is crazy,” he said, agreeing with his friend. “I just wish I knew how I leveled up. Then I could push everyone around me in the right direction. This whole guessing thing has me stressed the fuck out.”
The two continued to talk while the fighters polished off the few remaining undead and gathered their loot. Undead dropped NEX occasionally, along with items and other goods. But it was when Rivea searched the massive Juggernaut that she hollered in excitement and made her way over to Ray.
“What did you find?” he asked the Drake when she got close enough.
Rivea’s eyes were wide with excitement as she took out a fist-sized gem. “I found this!” she exclaimed.
Ray took the gem from her and looked at it. He examined it closely, but couldn’t see anything particularly special about it. Turning the Rivea, he said as much.
“Ray, that’s a Mana Crystal!” she said in exasperation. “Normally you wouldn’t find one of those above ground. You normally get them from dungeons, the System Shop, or from Quests. Getting one from an uncommon undead? That’s unheard of!”
Ray shrugged and handed the gem to Derrick, who froze the minute he held it in his hands. “I have no idea what a Mana Crystal is Rivea. Not a damn clue. What can you use it for? Does it upgrade weapons or armor? Is it a weapon?”
The Drake was about to respond, but Derrick surprised them by jumping in. “I think I just solved our transportation problems,” he said quietly.
“What do you mean?” Ray asked, curious.
The engineer cleared his throat. “Well, prior to the Integration we made a few basic transportation vehicles. Remember the boat? We built a basic Mana Engine for the thing. Very basic. But we got it working,” he explained. “After the Integration, we couldn’t get anything like that to work. For whatever reason, the Mana in the air wasn’t enough to trigger or power any kind of engine. But this puppy? The Mana Crystal? It's fucking condensed Mana. To the point, it became a physical thing. I think I could power a whole lot more than just an engine with this though. I need to think about this and do some research.”
That was good news. If Derrick had even a vague idea of how to solve their transportation problems then finding this Mana Crystal was going to be incredibly beneficial. It would only remain to be seen if the thing would be as valuable as he thought it may, however. He wouldn’t get his hopes up and would plan around it not accomplishing anything. It paid to have a few alternative plans on hand.
Turning back, Ray looked at the wall. Derrick's engineers were already working on it with Rivea, carving the required signals and forms into the back side to enchant it. Based on how it looked, it would take Ray a long time to fully wall even this side of the hex. Converting buildings meant that he had plenty of material, but waiting a day each time, not to mention how weak it made him using that much Power in one go, was more than annoying. Maybe it was time that he took a look at upping his own stats. Doing that may make it easier to use more Power in a single go.
Leaving the fighters to patrol the area and guard the working engineers, Ray began a stroll back to the base with Nyx as his side. Derrick trailed behind him, lost in thought as he stared at the magical gem in his hand.
“I think we need to do some experimenting when we get back,” he said to his {SOUL COMPANION}. “I’m… not very strong. I’ve lost a lot of my speed. I don’t have the endurance I had pre-Integration either. I think its time to start looking at fixing that.”
“About time. You should also see if you can make a make a new ability, or better, give others new abilities,” Nyx said. “We need lots of different things for the territory, and we lack a lot. From farmers to crafters, almost none of the people here have skills that we need.”
Ray blinked in surprise and stared at the dog. “And how the hell would you know that?”
She chuffed in response, “Unlike some people, I spent my time wandering around and listening to people, from their concerns to their levels to their skills. They all have plenty to say when they don’t think anyone is listening. Even the random dog wandering around is ignored.”
Ray couldn’t fault them. Who thought that a canine waking by would have the capability to understand, much less relay, any information that she heard? It was funny to think about, but certainly an ace that he wanted to keep in his pocket for now. He didn’t want everyone to know that Nyx was a capable member of his team just yet. It would make finding trouble and sniffing out anyone attempting to undermine his authority all the easier.
“Speaking of which, there are some problem children that you need to address. That old politician was only the tip of the iceberg,” she said as if sensing what he was thinking about.
He sighed, “Ok, lay it on me.”
“Good old Kevin’s group is pretty upset that he vanished him. They plan on gathering as many others as they can and overthrowing you. So far, no one has really paid them the time of day,” she said. “The second group is much smaller but possibly more dangerous. A few stragglers that came in are planning on taking as much as they can carry and moving to a neighboring territory to set up shop. They think they can survive just fine on their own after taking what they can from you.”
“Grand. Thieves and rebels. Already,” Ray sighed in annoyance. “Go let Dax know I need to see him and his wife later. We can just sweep both groups and see who feels like being either. Or both. Man, I wish there was some kind of way to…” he trailed off, then looked at the dog walking next to him.
“What? Is there something on my muzzle?” she asked, crossing her eyes to look at the end of her snout.
“No… I was just thinking that I wished that someone could tell me who was being honest or not. Then you tell me about possibly giving someone a new ability brought me to the realization hat I have never seen your stats before,” he said curiously. “And since you’re my summon… shouldn’t you have some?”
Nyx was quiet for a while as she mulled that over. Eventually, she said, “Curious. I should have stats but I can’t seem to bring them up. I know my ability, {POWER BARK}, but that’s all I can think of. Maybe you can bring it up?”
Ray thought about it for a second and then Nyx’s stats sheet appeared in front of him;
NYX
{RACE}
CANIS LUPIS FAMILIARUS
{CLASS}
SOUL COMPANION
{CLASS GRADE}
N/A
{STAGE}
N/A
{LEVEL}
N/A
{STRENGTH}
9
{AGILITY}
16
{POWER}
20
{WISDOM}
12
{LUCK}
4
{ABILITIES}
POWER BARK
“Wow, you are strong and fast,” Ray said in appreciation with a whistle. “You don’t have levels or stages, but I bet that’s because your development is somehow tied to me. And yeah, you have one ability, {POWER BARK}. That must be that shout thing you do.”
He rubbed his hands together. “Oh man, I can’t wait for this. Let’s see about getting you a new ability or two and how much that can cost me. I bet it's more than possible, and if it is… it's going to change everything.”