"Woww, what is this building, Zen?" Kirana found me while I was observing the core room of my tower. "Did you buy your own Territory Core?"
"Nope, this is a Mana Tower, pretty sure that's a Tower Core." I told her. It functions as a control panel of sorts, it is also where I may register spells and change the various settings. Even whilst talking with her, I decided to lessen the regeneration range to only affect the area within Rumah's Territory, and provide The Tower some spells, among which are; Conjure Trilattic Swarm, Condense Water, Lesser Heal, and Magico Disk.
"So, why are you here?" I ask her. The Tower would cast spells at my mastery, which meant the Trilattic Swarm may be borrowed out. Magico Disk to defend the Tower and Rumah. Water and healing for general or emergency use, I want to at least have one more to cover food, but will need to consult with Henry so as to provide something that would truly help.
"What, am I not allowed to come find you for no reason?" She looks at me with a very serious gaze, "I see I'm just an acquaintance to you…" her expression sagged into a look of utter sadness.
"Of course you can!" What should I do? "I… I… you see… umm, well—"
As I look around for a solution to my predicament. "hehehe–haHaHaHAHA"
"—the weather is…" what?
"Just kidding!" She said amidst fading laughter, "I just came to thank you for finding my family for me."
Ohhh~ shit!
"Andre texted me two days ago," oh. That was when I gave him the creds to buy a VICOS network upgrade. "Though he probably fell asleep and stopped replying to my texts later that night."
Thousand years old rotting shit! I should have convinced them to come along.
"He hasn't replied to me since, but it's good to hear that they're okay." She finally said.
"Kirana. I'm sorry." I proceeded to tell her about the failsafe and how they ended up untrusting me. Then of the conflict and my encounter with her brother, as well as the way he kept me away from the rest of her family. Then about the coming of Simon and what he did to Wisman. Finally, of how empty the Shelter had been when I left.
I watch her positive mood shift into a playful grin, then to an apologetic expression before she shows fear and finally, growing despair... She fell to her knees and began wailing in extreme sorrow. I stand there not knowing what to do.
Sounds of approaching footsteps can be heard, followed by the approach of my family. My mom in the lead. Were they spying?
"What happened?" She asks.
"She is Kirana, Andre's sister." A look of understanding dawned on the face of my parents and sister. My mom promptly kneels down and takes Kirana into her embrace. Somehow, I ended up briefly telling my family the truth of how the residents of their previous shelter were devoured, not burned.
It felt to me like Kirana cried for hours within my mom's embrace, though the time on my VICOS indicates something closer to fifteen minutes. Eventually her despair shifts into a look of great determination, gently leaving mom's embrace after speaking words of appreciation, she stands up and whispers, "mom, dad, Andre and Susanti…"
"I'll avenge you all!" Her eyes glint with resolve. "Zen, I want you to tell me everything you know about that dead man walking."
A couple of hours later, we break for dinner in the outdoor dining area at Garuda Hospital, my family had comfortably arrived by riding a jeep Atech and Acek Ardi managed to fix. Before a nightly meeting that involves all key figures, thereupon we all agree to increase security and intensify training as an early response to the possible threat of Simon and his team. As well as discuss various other things, the newly bought Mana Tower included.
The meeting concluded. Now then, I too plan on grinding my ass out for an unforeseeable amount of time. Though first of all, getting my family settled down in my Tower. My plan is to leave the ground floor empty—besides a few sofas—to function as a common room of sorts, while the second, third and fourth floor would be restructured to become rooms.
I erect a wall between a 1 meter corridor that leads from one stairs to another, and the bedrooms. Making the rooms an almost oval shape with a two meters radius on one axis, and 2.5 meters on the other. My parents will occupy the second floor, Tiffany and Mini the third, while I will occupy the fourth. The fifth room shall remain as a core room for now. The first underground floor ends up getting repurposed as another bedroom for the Tenolo twins—as per their request, better than going up the stairs, they say.
Feeling fresh from only a little bit more than an hour of sleep, most probably an effect of high constitution. I almost left for Chambers of Goblins, but decided it is prudent to first tell Henry or Mr. Herman. So, I spent most of the night in a meditative-like state—albeit using SYMPHONY—pondering over a number of the various spells I know, though mostly on Blink, I'd rather not have to play chase with another disintegrating spatial tunnel. And on how to improve Beam Torrent, to be specific, on how to make a larger more focused beam.
I was broken out of my meditative state by someone knocking on my door. My mom, I stand up and open the door. "Hi mom?"
"Zen, did I wake you up?" She asks, "we're told we can get find breakfast at Garuda Hospital like dinner last night, will you be joining us?"
"Nope, I was just meditating." I grin, "let's go eat breakfast!" We were joined by the rest of my family and both Tenolos, we then rode their jeep for Garuda Hospital.
I notice how they have begun to establish an economy; with a few restaurants and food stalls along the road, one shop seems to sell simple leather armors and gears, and various other stores. They also trade using coins I don't recognize. On our way, we also passed by a blacksmith's workshop—one I failed to notice last night.
Eventually we arrived at Garuda Hospital, judging from how many people are present, the population seems to have grown once again. breakfast was potatoes and pan fried alien-bred-beef meat—bicols, their milk and omelets were also available. As we got seated after grabbing our plates of food, Kirana approached to join us, then, a little later. Henry and Jennifer, soon followed by Linda and her Eyang. Breakfast among friends and family, I found myself smiling wide.
We all agreed last night that first and foremost, everyone needs to grow stronger. So, after a pleasant meal, we each left to deal with our individual responsibilities. Mini will join the other kids in a general class of sorts while her mom, my parents and Kirana will join me to delve into the Chambers of Goblins. Besides grinding for levels, mom and ci Tiffany will help with food preparations while my dad will work with Henry to try and help him better manage the Territory.
—
Stolen novel; please report.
"That was fun!" My dad said with a grin the moment we returned to True Space. We had just finished running the Chambers of Goblins.
"Yeah, let's go again!" Ci Tif agrees. Did you know Dungeons exist in their own subspace, I do now, thanks to my new intuition skill and understanding of spatial stuff.
"This one has a cooldown of 6 hours, so we'll return later. Lets go to the Druidants now." Kirana says, Dianti and her began detailing our next dungeon to my parents and ci Tif while we leisurely make our way to said Dungeon. I am left on watch and clean up duty along the way, as well as devouring anything of a small enough size. I had not devour anything within the Dungeon.
And so, time passes by and by the time the sun sets, I had run the Druidant dungeon once and the Goblin dungeon thrice between doing jobs for the Territory, the last of which was run with a different team—which includes Atech and Acek Ardi. Most materials, consumables and gears, be it magical or not goes towards filling up Rumah's storage, besides Dianti who once again rolled a custom made magical item, this time being a Necklace shaped special storage device that can hold plant life. And the few weapons or armor my family or the Tenolos needed.
By the time the day grew dark, between the builders and I, we had managed to create makeshift hideouts around the territory. This will allow our newly appointed scouts to stand guard in key areas in order to keep watch for incoming threats. They are to report anything they find with a message spell of some sorts.
After another group dinner, I now have some time for myself. 'Updates. Please summarize them further, thank you.' It's been a while since I checked, not since we had a break during our escape, I think.
** DING **
Skill level up, Inspect 14 > 15
Strength + 16
Constitution + 25
Dexterity + 31
Intelligence + 9
Wisdom + 3
Will + 4
Charisma + 2
1,182 syscred and 6,225 exp awarded
754 syscred and 3,548 exp awarded
1,110 syscred and 7,081 exp awarded
You are now level 9
3,006 syscred and 16,660 exp awarded
Skill level up, Dagger proficiency 10 > 12
Skill level up, Evasion 11 > 14
Skill level up, Dodge Roll 7 > 10
Skill level up, Heavy Armor Proficiency 13 > 14
Skill level up, Parry 4 > 7
Skill level up, Shield Proficiency 5 > 8
Skill level up, Thrown Weapon Proficiency 10 > 11
Skill level up, Unarmed Combat Proficiency 11 > 12
Combat summary
Enemies slain:
Big Rat lv 1 x 13
Giant Rat lv 2 x 5
Sire Rats lv 5 x 2
Rat Matriarch lv 10 x 1
ShadowRoach lv 5 x 8
DarkRoach lv 6 x 2
AbbysRoach lv 8 x 3
Huge Mosquito lv 3 x 6
Junior Huntsman Spider lv 1 x 7
Senior Huntsman Spider lv 3 x 3
Chief Huntsman Spider lv 110x 1
Toxic Fly lv 2 x 3
Pollutant Fly lv 5 x 1
Squaills lv 4 x 4
190 syscred and 468 exp awarded
Strength + 75
Constitution + 115
Dexterity + 121
Intelligence + 43
Wisdom + 11
Will + 20
Fourteen spell learnt and improved:
Conjure Sword Early > Basic
Conjure Mace Early > Basic
Conjure Spear Early > Basic
Conjure Quarterstaff Early > Basic
Conjure Handaxe Early > Basic
Conjure Bow and Arrow Early > Basic
Conjure Darts Early > Basic
Conjure Greatsword Early > Basic
Conjure Whip Early > Basic
Conjure Halberd Early > Basic
Conjure Greataxe Early > Basic
Conjure Flail Early > Basic
Conjure Nunchuck Early > Basic
Conjure Katana Early > Basic
Fifteen spells fused, evolved and lost
Journeyman spell learnt Conjure Weapon
Skill obtained Swords Proficiency
Skill obtained Polearms Proficiency
Skill obtained Axes Proficiency
Skill obtained Bowed Weapons Proficiency
Skill obtained Soft Weapons Proficiency
Skill level up, Swords Proficiency 1 > 5
Skill level up, Polearms Proficiency 1 > 6
Skill level up, Axes Proficiency 1 > 4
Skill level up, Bowed Weapons Proficiency 1 > 3
Skill level up, Maces Proficiency 3 > 5
Skill level up, Soft Weapons Proficiency 1 > 4
Skill level up, Thrown Weapon Proficiency 11 > 13
Level nine, get! That was quite the lengthy update. Inspect had been stagnating lately, so I had spam-used it all morning to no results. So I did what any LitRPG reader out there would do, and involved mana. Circulating mana through the skill like Sneaking did nothing, eventually I figured out that the skill needed a sliver of mana to connect with the object. Now Inspect shows me formulas in addition to the usual descriptions.
I remembered that there were less enemies during the later half of our journey, which meant less kills for everyone and less objects for me to devour. While the dungeon rewards are as expected; consumables, materials, and some standard magical gear. Nothing amazing came out of my rewards rolls, which means Henry gets extra work dropped upon his laps. I also made use of my time within the dungeon for grinding up several of my unused skills, especially skills I deem would be applicable under most situations. As well as make sure an enemy is hit by at least another one or two people discounting myself to provide the shared experience.
My time spent hunting in between waiting for the Dungeon cooldowns, unfortunately, was barely worth the hours I spent in terms of both experience and the amount of enemy per hour—which is maybe five kills an hour for a twelve hour hunt. Only managing to find one rat's nest, and one spider's nest, a few flying enemies and some roaches that are competent sneaks after hunting almost all day. Though this just means that the combatants of Rumah are doing a great job keeping the area safe, which is fortunate. I find my feelings about this conflicting.
During a random fit of remembrance, I recalled a novel whose MC managed to gain a skill that grants them mastery to all weapons. Which is the trigger to my action of conjuring as many a variety of weapons as possible for use throughout the day. Unfortunately, I have yet to succeed in getting the all-weapons-proficiency skill come night. Though, the various conjure spells fusing then evolving is a pleasant enough coincidence
Dinner was more beef and a smidgen of the Squaills I managed to hunt. Then, I joined the others during an after-dinner get-together, before following my family home in another car Atech repaired and gave them for a bit of family quality time until, one by one, we left and called it a day. The twins now live in a newly erect house beside my Mana Tower, together with everything I had bought for them in my Repository.
By 2 am. Not three hours later, and after a quick sleep. I'm once again up and about, preparing for another dungeon run and field hunt.