Daz ran his fingers through Madison's hair while he observed her sleeping face and couldn't help smiling at how adorable he felt she was, snuggling up to him as she did.

"I know we agreed to take today off since it's the start of Semester Two, but really. It's almost noon and you're still sleeping..." Daz chuckled faintly. "If only I could be so relaxed despite everything worrying me."

Slowly, he peeled his eyes off of hers and sighed faintly. "They really left us alone for such a long time..." he muttered to himself.

After his meeting with the Truthian council presided over by Abbot Thomas, the Church of Truth and the kingdom of New Earth had avoided each other like the plague.

New Earth had gained control of four more American states; Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming in the over two months of peace.

Daz now ruled a fourth of the old United States of America, making his kingdom the second-largest entity in the west.

Most other states belong to either The Church of Truth or the Federation of Hope - an organisation ruled by Larry Billard.

Larry being the man who wielded a yo-yo and had decided to foolishly speak out against Pheldorapod during the champion section of the Grand System Auction.

Washington was tightly locked down and controlled by the former president of the US who was suspiciously silent with his people.

Why he was even in that state instead of the District of Columbia - the home of Washington D.C, baffled both him and Rose. Something suspicious was going on there but it wasn't a pressing matter.

North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota were in a state of eternal winter for some mysteriously unknown reason, and not a friendly winter either.

Due to this, none of the four groups ruling the states had laid claim to those lands yet.

Daz pulled up the time and then said, "System, there're only a few minutes left now. I hereby pledge to pay all fines for any of my citizens who have failed to complete their semester goals."

Confirmed. Hosts whom this decision will impact have been informed and your merit points will be deducted when the semester ends.

Rose had done a lot of research regarding the semester goals and had told Daz that he could - if he so desired - shoulder the 10,000,000 merit point fine for his citizens who didn't accomplish their personalized goal.

There was a catch though; two, really. First, either he could shoulder all fines or none. He couldn't be selective.

Second, once he revealed that he could do this, what motivation would anyone have to continue pursuing their personalised goals in the semesters to come?

A lot of discussions had been held to combat this issue. A lot of fruitless discussions, he felt.

Regardless, Daz decided to check the progress of his training over the last two and a half months. He had little better to do as he lay in bed cuddling Madison waiting for the semester to end.

First came his two uses of the Altar of Permanence. Ultimately Daz had decided to make Survivor's Instinct permanent.

There were a few reasons for this. Of course, the utility of the power was more than obvious but initially, Daz had wanted to increase his permanent long-range combat capabilities.

He was considering making Death Beams permanent though that would require three uses of the Muisca temple; one for his reaper evolution, one for Death Energy, then a final one for the skill itself.

The only reason he'd chosen his inherited power, in the end, was because he could first make his branching silver bloodline permanent instead of his Hamilio one.

Even with only that branching bloodline, he could use the base passive instincts with no issues whatsoever. He'd tested that extensively after convincing the mummies of El Dorado to limit his system and esper access.

Speaking of his esper abilities, his training with Lorenzo and Ho Ran had gone quite smoothly over the past two and a half months.

Daz's Internal Energy Amount 5.43/5.43 [+3.88]

He hadn't spent all of his free time training internal energy hence why it hadn't grown more than the almost four points it already had, but he was still very pleased with this progress.

Daz had noticed that as he gained more internal energy it grew harder to gain more, which he assumed was natural.

Regardless, he could use Future Vision several times in quick succession easily and he could also alter his seen futures without straining himself too much provided they were simple in nature.

He still couldn't see more of the future regarding why he needed so many merit points, which did concern him but he didn't let it bother him too much since he had more than just that little concern to keep him up at night.

Daz had also gained a much broader understanding of how to use Gravital Body. His grandmother was a harsh but fair teacher.

He'd honestly expected her to be a lot more vicious and cruel to serve as a means of revenge against the Hamilio family while training him.

Daz didn't expect his proposal to Madison to have such a large effect on Ho Ran but he was glad that it made her view him in a brighter light nonetheless.

He'd also spent a lot of time dedicated to improving his combat-oriented Embers. Over two months of work had led to some results.

Ember of Love [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of love, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 12% [+11%]

Ember of Digging [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of digging, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 24% [+23%]

Ember of Endurance [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of endurance, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 21% [+20%]

Ember of Majesty [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of majesty, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

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Initial: 35% [+34%]

As much as he had tried to focus on his more combat-oriented Embers, his duties as the king of a kingdom as large as his had inadvertently pushed the Ember of Majesty into the lead.

Still, he, like Mu, had found some interesting applications for the Ember of Endurance and the Ember of Digging.

Other things of note were that Daz had maxed all of his maxable stats bar Soul Power through killing leaderless monsters.

"Oh, it's time," Daz said in surprise as a few system notifications filled his vision.

Semester One has now concluded.

Semester One Summary The host successfully completed their goal and optional goal. Goal rewards 200 merit stars 15 C-rank City Creation Tokens 50 C-rank Building Creation Tokens 25,000 Semester Goal Exemption Tickets Optional Goal Rewards 5 Skill Empowering Tokens 5 Skill Combining Tokens

"Well, well, well," Daz said as he failed to stop a grin from surfacing on his face. "Plenty of money and tools to help grow my kingdom and my own personal strength..."

Immediately following that observation, a bucket of proverbial cold water was splashed on Daz's head as a set of new messages came into view.

8,593 citizens under your rule have failed to complete their semester goal. As you have chosen to pay their fines, merit points are now being deducted from your accounts.

Initially, he didn't think too much of the relatively small number of failed citizens. Less than 10,000 of his almost 1,000,000 strong kingdom hadn't been able to fulfil their goals. Surely that was something to celebrate, no?

No, it wasn't. Daz paled when he checked over his new account balances after the system was done pilfering them.

The total balance of the host is now: 100,234 merit points.

The total balance of the host's [Midechhe Travelling Bank] current account is now: 0 merit point or merit stars.

The total balance of the host's [Midechhe Travelling Bank] savings account is now: 0 merit points or stars.

"Hah... haha... Over eight-fucking-hundred-billion merit points... Almost a thousand merit stars..." Daz was happy to have his somewhat muted emotions otherwise he feared he might have yelled in raw fury.

The last thing he wanted to right now was to wake up his sleeping fiancée.

What was done was done. Daz reasoned that the money he'd spent earning and generating through his compound interest wouldn't come back just because he was grieving over the loss.

He should be thankful he'd managed to save over 8,000 lives from eternal enslavement to the system.

Still, accepting what had happened and his loss was not going to get in the way of making damn sure it would never happen again.

"System, can you show me how many survivors are left on Earth and can you tell me exactly how many people couldn't pay the fine or didn't have someone to pay it for them," Daz requested in a polite tone.

Confirmed. Remaining survivors of [Earth]: 120,021,230.

Silver-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

Confirmed. 8,320,543 of [Earth]'s current testees failed to complete their given semester goal and then failed or chose not to pay the resulting fine.

"Holy shit... I didn't realise we were so few... Last I checked there were still over 200,000,000 of us. Fuck. Now about 7% of us just got whisked away to be the system's slaves just for not doing a stupid task or not paying a cheap fucking fine." Daz was angry but more than that he felt a bit hopeless.

"How can I lead the planet safely when all of this is over if everyone's fucking dead or just gone?" He asked himself.

His self-questioning, however, was stopped by a world notification and then the details of his second-semester goal.

World Announcement Semester two will last twice as long as semester one to match the increased difficulty of the personalised goals. Additionally, a group of 14 Earthian survivors have been destroyed in both body and soul for attempting to interfere with the system.

Semester Two Shall Now Begin Two gods have successfully negotiated with the system to increase the difficulty of your personally tailored goal. Daz Crowthorne's Goal For Semester Two Gain total control of North America, South America and all of far Eastern Asia. More details of what exactly the host needs to rule over can be summoned on request. Optional Goal Gain control of Great Britain and Ireland. (Note: Rewards will be greatly increased should you complete this optional goal on top of the main goal).

That was a lot to unpack.

"Someone else tried to interfere with the system and it actually cared?" Daz asked himself.

He thought about the El Doradian mummies, Ak and Tek. His mind also wandered to his current biggest yet peaceful threat, the Church of Truth. He also recalled whatever was living inside of Lyle's mind.

Of course, Daz remembered the whole world being warned after the system rewarded his father for trying to meddle with the tests as well.

"Now it punishes people? Where is the line in the sand?" Daz asked rhetorically. 'Even I'm technically interfering with it by giving myself Stars of Eternity but I see no hammer preparing to smite me.'

Regardless, this concern was the least of his worries. "So I have a year to take over pretty much three continents and a bonus goal of a sub-continent too? Lovely."

He stayed in bed as he stroked Madison's hair for a good while until she finally opened her eyes groggily and greeted him with a kiss before going over her own notifications.

"Daz, goal?" Madison asked once she was done.

"Oh, nothing serious, just take over half of the world. You?" Daz asked jokingly.

"Heh," Madison laughed dryly on account of her not being able to show her emotions. She stared intently into Daz's eyes then said, "Get, married."

"Huh... I guess that makes sense since we confirmed in semester one that goals are based on people's own goals and aspirations," Daz commented. "What's your optional?"

Embarrassment flickered through Madison's eyes as she mumbled out, "Get, pregnant..."

Daz turned to stare at the ceiling. "I've certainly considered it since I wondered if it was possible now with our differing species. It is, by the way, it just requires specialised medicine. My issue though is with our esper abilities."

Madison nodded. "Mmm. Cruel."

"Right? I'd love to have a child with you but it just seems foolish knowing the risks," Daz said logically and with a calm tone.

Silence reigned for a good few minutes before Madison asked, "What, you? Optional."

"Oh, right. Most of my optional goal is to add your birth country to my kingdom," Daz answered with a smile. "Your optional may not be possible right now but mine surely is. Wouldn't you like to settle things with your family once and for all? After we're done handling the Truthians, of course."

Hesitance flashed across Madison's face but she ultimately answered with, "Yes, would, like."

Daz wasn't stupid enough to miss her reluctance. He kissed her on the head and said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. No need to force yourself to do anything."

Madison closed her eyes in contentment. "Mmm. Love, you."

"I love you too," Daz replied warmly, "but we should really get out of bed. I know we both took today off but it's midday and I have a very important meeting to set up."

"Why?" Madison asked curiously.

"Well, I'm currently broke. I need to start planning immediately to make sure I don't end up this way again in a year," Daz claimed.

His number one priority right now was ramping up the assisted goal clearing efforts. His future self didn't seem to be too worried about money when he was saying he'd pay such a massive sum, but that was no reason for Daz to get lazy now.