The figure disappeared and a quest notification entered Sam’s line of sight.

You have gained a new quest.

Engines of the End Times

Difficulty:S

You have formed a faction and have begun to take over the surface of your planet, but there are three things that stand in your way. These are divided into the subquests below.

The Seven Seals

Seven weapons of great power, based on the mythologies and legends of your world, have been created around the world. They reside in locations that match their origins. Claim all seven of them to create the greatest weapon that your planet has ever seen. The possessor of this weapon will be able to exert dominance over all others.

Ultimate Goal:Find all the weapons below.

Mjolnir(0/1)

Excalibur(0/1)

The Spear of Longinus(0/1)

The Sickle of Cronos(0/1)

Sun Wukong’s Staff(0/1)

Gungnir(0/1)

The Thunderbolt of Zeus(0/1)

The Legion

In the time since the initialization started, there has been a curious absence of anyone who has been a soldier before the System arrived. This is because of the actions of one man. General Hugo Mar chanced upon the beginning of the path to the Dao of Legion. In doing so, he laid claim to every soldier to live on the planet through a unique form of Dao resonance, subsuming them into his hive mind. They now exist as the ultimate monster of your planet, a many headed monstrosity of fused will. This force lives only to spread itself, an anarchic terror of pure self propagation.

Ultimate Goal:Eradicate the Legion

Invaders from Beyond the Stars

Malefactors from other universes will seek to use your universe as a source of power. You must show them the error of that desire by forcing them off your planet. Some of the alien species will be benevolent, but most will be hostile.

Ultimate Goal:Remove any threats from other universes.

Ultimate Goal:Complete all three quests.

Rewards:Planetary Dominance

167:56:35 hours remaining until the quest begins.

Sam did not know what to think of this quest. It was far more complicated than anything he had seen before, and the evocative descriptions only meant one thing. When the System waxed poetic, that meant that whatever it was talking about was either of great importance or extremely dangerous. Sam guessed that it was the latter of these options in this case.

He closed his quest window, and walked down the stairs from the tower. Everywhere that he could see, people were staring off into the distance with glazed looks on their faces, clearly reading their own versions of the quest notifications. He started running back towards the center of the complex, and entered the doors some time later. His captains were already waiting for him there, and they all had similar expressions on their faces. Mixtures of excitement and trepidation.

There were four new faces there, two women and two men. They were all around the same age, but they varied wildly in size. One of the men was a giant, standing at almost seven feet tall. He wielded a massive greatsword, but his face was innocent and naive, unlike the rest of his appearance. The other man was short, but he had a fierce intelligence to him, almost aggressively so. His eyes skimmed the world around him, analyzing everything that he laid his eyes on. The two women looked the same, both small and lithe specimens with brownish black hair. When Sam looked at them for a bit longer, he realized that they were sisters. They all waited in silence for him to speak.

“I assume that you all received the same quest as me?” He asked, watching them.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Yes, we did,” Lao said, nodding. “It might be a little different than yours though because it referenced the fact that we are followers of you.”

“Oh. The main bits should be the same though?” Sam asked.

“Yes, the three sub-quests were the same. The Seven Seals, the Legion and the Invaders beyond the Stars one. Those are the same as what you received, right?”

“They are. Now that we are all well established with this, who are the new captains? I have not yet been introduced to them.”

The larger man, the one with the strangely naive face, stepped forwards with a large grin.

“Hello, faction leader. I’m George Vernot. I was a farmer in rural France before this, but now I turned my natural strength to a path of battle. I want to make it so that everyone will be able to live together in harmony!”

“Nice to meet you, George. That’s an interesting goal. I hope that you succeed in it.” Sam did not bother saying that such a goal was quite naive and unrealistic, but then again so was his goal to save his father and to reach the peak of power. Besides, the image that the man’s words created resonated with his Dao. There were deep, foundational problems in the Multiverse and the larger Boundless Expanse, ones that Sam would do his utmost to fix if he could. The other man sidled up to Sam, looking at him shiftily. He smiled at Sam, but his eyes did not smile with them. Either he was trying to conceal something, or he was very shy.

“Greetings. I am Claude. I hope that we can work together to carry out all of our goals and aspirations.”

“Great. I look forward to working with you.”

The man’s demeanor sounded professional, but to anyone who had ever been to a forced business meeting, it was standard hedging through the use of profound sounding platitudes. The man slunk away to the back of the group, and the two women walked up.

“As you can probably tell, we are both sisters. I’m Ava, and this is Jane,” the closer of the two women said, one with a pair of axes on her belt. The other one, who wielded two daggers, remained silent.

“Apologies for my sister. She lost her tongue to a monster some time into the initialization. She can’t talk anymore, but luckily the System translates sign language automatically.”

Jane started waving her hands around, and Sam actually understood what she was saying.

“Hello. My name is Jane, and I am looking forward to this partnership. If we work together, we can get what we want.”

“Huh. That’s pretty interesting. Also, I agree with the sentiment. Thank you,” Sam said as he took in the fact that he had understood that.

The others all applauded, and Lao stepped forwards.

“Now that we have been introduced, I think it is time to begin building a city here. The first thing we should do is to make a city hall. Is everyone in agreement?”

“Though the Metropolis Core, I’m guessing?” Eduardo asked.

“Yes. I don’t know how much it would cost, but judging by the wall, it should be within our reach.”

Sam started walking over to the core in question, and he laid his hands on it. The same menu as before came up.

Construction options

Buildings

Terraforming

Agriculture

Defence

Sam selected the buildings option.

Buildings

Basic Hut:250 Credits

Longhouse:1000 Credits

Mess Hall:2500 Credits

Dormitories:5000 Credits

Artisans’ Hall:10,000 Credits

G Rank Laboratory:25,000 Credits

G Rank Town Hall:100,000 Credits per mile

G Rank City Center:500,000 Credits per mile

Grand Library:1,000,000 Credits

Icon:10,000,000 Credits

Sam knew what all of those were, save for the Icon option.

“Hey, Jeffrey? What’s an Icon?”

“If you mean something that would show up in a Metropolis Core list, then I think I know what you mean. An Icon is a conceptual resonance structure that aligns with the overarching goal of a certain faction or group. While within the area of effect, members of the faction have their power boosted, while enemies are heavily suppressed,” Jeffrey answered. It was tempting to think of the man as nothing more than a repository of System related information, but Sam tried to think of him not just as a resource, but a friend. So far he was succeeding.

“Well, that explains why it costs 10 million credits,” Sam said, shaking his head.

“Ten million? Damn, that's a lot,” George said, a look of childlike puzzlement on his face.

“Yes, it is,” Sam replied, chuckling at the man’s eager disposition. “It is indeed. But for now, we don’t have to worry about that. We need to buy the town hall.”

Sam selected the option, paying for it out of his own pocket as it was not that expensive. A green outline of a large building appeared in the air, and as Sam moved, it moved. He recognized this type of building placement system from the few real time strategy games he had played in the past. He had to find a suitable place for it to go, and then he could place it down.

“Jeffrey, do you mind if I do something a bit drastic?” Sam asked.

“Depends on what it is.”

“I’m going to replace this fort with a town hall,” Sam answered.

Jeffrey frowned upon hearing that.

“I mean, sure, but make sure that everyone is out of there.”

“On it,” Ava said, as she dashed around the complex, telling people to leave. Sam and the others followed them out, and when the last person had left the building, Sam placed the glowing green structure down.

Warning, there is physical matter in the way. Do you wish to remove it for a cost of 5000 Credits?(Scaled for the size of the job)

Y/N

Sam hit yes, and then he watched as the building came into being. It was built almost immediately, as opposed to the day-long wait for the walls. It was far smaller than the walls had been, and it only took about three minutes. The pieces of the fort were whisked away into a pile on the ground, and the Dao Tree was transported, along with a large clump of earth, into the middle of the nearby forest. Sam briefly had thought that he had killed it off by accident, but he soon saw it as it was far larger than any of the other trees. As soon as the process had been completed, Sam stepped inside. As soon as he did so, a menu appeared on his System interface.

Governance Interface

Taxes

Demographics

Finances

Wages

Trade

It was a list of things that were not available from the Metropolis Core. The Core only seemed to be useful for things like building, and not the actual running of the city. It was very useful that there was a way to do so by utilizing the System.He left them for now and exited the interface, looking back at his companions.

“What are you waiting for? Come in,” he said, pointing at the door.