Derek Moss coughed awkwardly and was met with almost absolute silence. It was like no one was even breathing. The group of fifty people standing in front of him was looking at him with serious expressions and not breathing.

He had an impulse to reach up and rub the back of his neck but suppressed it. Because in a way, he could understand why they would be so torn by surprise and desire. In their eyes, Derek could see the spark of ambition. These were all people that had recently been liberated from a bubble city only a short way beyond the charred borderlands that the Ghosthound had fixed. Only a few hours ago had they seen the oppressive power that a potent image could wield.

Despite all the differences in governance in the bubble cities, one thing was constant: the desire for power.

Perhaps due to the chaotic energies in the area around the ‘equator’, the monsters had been especially strong. Despite the Order Ducis forces moving as fast as they could once they noticed the situation, the attack had already begun. When the titanic form of Kharon had settled down next to the bubble city, the monster horde had already breached through the outer perimeter that the city had set up and was massacring the populace.

As an applicant to the Order Ducis, Derek was part of the first wave of responders to go into the city. While Helen and Ajax blazed a trail forward, Derek took advantage of his Class’s ability to cut down large groups and very publicly obliterated streets that were thronged with monsters. Emerald Mana Bombs cleared several meters worth of monsters with each move. He was the Bombardier of the Sacred Grove, and in the defense of another’s life, his image practically burned with conviction.

After all, Derek hadn’t been slacking since he had arrived in Kharon; every day was sparring or image training or downright mental torture in order to strengthen his will. Surrounded by so many individuals who could suppress him with their image, Derek had thrown himself fully into his own growth.

And it was paying off.

In the aftermath, Derek was rather embarrassed to discover that while the other Order Ducis members had taken care of more dangerous targets in the monster horde, Derek was the one who the population was whispering about in awestruck voices.

Naffur had found the whole thing amusing. “Really? Thank god- I’ve given the welcome to Kharon way too often recently. Why don’t you take over for this city?”

“But… I didn’t really… Helen and Ajax…” Derek hesitated.

Seeing the indecision on Derek’s face, Naffur’s expression turned serious. “Mr. Moss, did you or did you not help these people? It might be strange to say, but this was why the Order Ducis was made. To make sure that ordinary people have the opportunity to grow into their own power. For that, we earn awe and ire in equal measure. If you want to become a true member of the Order Ducis, you will need to be able to handle both. Let neither influence your resolve. Only know that what we do matters.”

That got Derek’s attention. He looked at Naffur so long that the younger man began to squirm. “What is it?”

“No…” Derek said slowly. After hearing Naffur’s words, he had felt even more out of his depth than he had previously. But it also reframed the issue; Derek wasn’t trying to revel in the thanks of the people, he was speaking in front of them to provide the truth. He was just doing his job. “You have become surprisingly eloquent, doing all these speeches. It’s honestly impressive.”

Naffur shrugged. “Everything is a Skill. Practice makes you better. Good luck with your practice, Mr. Moss.”

So Derek now stood in front of the fifty or so individuals identified by the organizations of Kharon to be highly talented and willing to relocate to the moving city. Some of them possessed wispy white hair and there was one pair of twins that Derek didn’t think they could be older than fifteen. But all of the gathered people had hard, searching eyes as they looked at Derek Moss.

They waited for him to begin in silence.

Clearing his throat, Derek Moss began to speak. “I’ll keep this short. All of you have been invited to stay on Kharon. I don’t exaggerate in the slightest to say it is the most unique city in the world, run by the most powerful man: Randidly Ghosthound. I won’t say much about him now. If you are curious, ask around Kharon and you will learn plenty. For now, the city he made should be evidence enough of what he is capable of.

“I encourage you to accept our invitation to join the Ghosthound’s city. If you do, there will be three months of training. It will be hell. It will, in all likelihood, be the reason that you survive in the future.

“But know that your invitations do not come for free. To thrive in the city of Kharon, you need three things. You need spirit, to grow to face all the challenges the world puts in front of you. You will need determination, to never look away from the truth. And finally, you will need a sense of duty.

“By coming to Kharon, you are accepting a role. A role in bettering the world. A role as one of the vanguard the next time a city is being overrun by monsters. If you cannot see yourself doing that… then don’t bother. Don’t waste our time. That is all.”

Derek stepped down from the podium, feeling the group of people continuing to watch him with their intense gazes as he proceeded to walk out of the small auditorium and went into the back area. As he left the crowd behind, Derek realized for the first time that his hands were extremely sweaty.

Naffur was waiting in the back area, grinning at him. “You forgot to mention images. But otherwise, a great first attempt. Short and to the point.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Derek Moss didn’t like the way Naffur said ‘first attempt’.

*****

Randidly resolved himself to never underestimate Tatiana in the future. Her ability to juggle the thousands of mundane issues that Kharon encountered in just a week was clearly apparent as Tatiana now dumped all these troubles at Randidly’s feet. As he read through the stack of papers that Tatiana had provided, Randidly learned far more than he ever wanted to about the land speculation, the escalating rivalry between the metalworking and cleanliness industries, resentment toward the ogre population for the fact they took up more space, the critical lack of staff willing to sign on as teachers and instructors for Kharon’s youth, the sudden spike in births resulting in a demand for pediatricians, and the ever more vocal calls for a predictable travel schedule for Kharon.

And then there was the rather nasty realization that these issues weren’t simple ones. The reason that they came up this week was that they came up every week.

Still, as Tatiana’s final report summed up very succinctly, all of these issues could be solved relatively quickly with the growth of one resource: space. So Tatiana recommended that Randidly take action to push his plan to sell floating islands that mimicked his own as soon as possible.

Which, of course, was where Tatiana’s report ended. As he looked down at the papers in his hand, he had a thoughtful expression. Usually, Tatiana would include recommendations for how to proceed at the end of the reports. But in this case, she had left the problems completely at Randidly’s feet. Making more space was a solution, generally, but the devil was always in the details.

How to distribute the space, who it belonged to, were all open questions.

Randidly cracked the knuckles of his right hand. “I suppose it’s about time I act like the founder of Kharon, huh…?”

Of course, as Randidly started to think about the best way to address the problems plaguing Kharon by making additional floating islands, he came to a realization that made his heart freeze. His floating island, and the other islands that he was now planning to make, were Engraved using the principles of Nether. It was the reason that the spirits had transformed into moonlight spirits, which was less a descriptor and more just a passing resemblance that they possessed.

More poignantly, a Captain from the Xyrt Brigade had now assembled a rather luxurious looking tent in the center of an island that was flying due to Nether principles. Rather carefully, Randidly glanced toward the tent in question. The heavy maroon fabric gave the whole thing a slightly ominous feel, compounded by the small amount of smoke that was wafting out from under the tent flap.

Looks like I still have more to learn about creating an ominous, evil island atmosphere. That tent looks like it belongs here on this shadowy refuge… Randidly rolled his eyes and then focused on the problem of using Nether. From the fact that Captain Quill was now calmly sitting within his tent on top of the island, perhaps the Nether principles contained within the Engraving weren’t important. At this point, the actual energy had largely transformed into the moonlight energy anyway.

...or maybe that was why Captain Quill called the island interesting… Randidly chewed on his lip and then shrugged. Hard to tell what the smoky man was thinking; he seemed to possess two different personalities. Well anyway, for now Randidly could plan his expansion and wait for the Xyrt Brigade to leave before he created additional floating islands. Even if the problems were pressing, Randidly could tell from Tatiana’s report that they didn’t need to be dealt with immediately.

So Randidly began to think about how to address the subtleties of the problems that Tatiana had presented. To him, one stuck out as quite a bit more important than the others: the problem of obtaining talented instructors who could train Kharon’s youth. In terms of the long term growth of Kharon, nothing was more important than creating a reliable method of producing capable youths.

And honestly, Randidly’s first thought wasn’t especially creative, but he found it rather appropriate. That is, found a school. Or rather, in this case, the Kharon Academy.

It would likely require an extremely large island to house an entire Academy, especially because the hook that Randidly was planning to use to draw in teachers was the problem of housing. If a portion of the Academy was prestigious enough housing dedicated to the faculty, that would pull some of the more hesitant individuals into agreeing to teach.

Of course, what Randidly’s mind focused on, rather than addressing the economic thorns of such an issue, was what seemed fun to him; creating a vast, labyrinth-like jungle gym beneath the Kharon Academy. It would be an area where the kids could play and also hone their physical Skills.

As a child, Randidly had adored the play areas at fast food establishments, but they had quickly lost their appeal as he had grown larger and more capable. But if he could create an area worth climbing and exploring below the Academy…

All of the dormant talents that Randidly had earned from his days as an Engineering student slowly roused themselves as Randidly threw himself at the task. Plus, Randidly didn’t need to worry much about material constraints or electric wiring; he now had the benefit of Engraving to fuel his imagination. As long as he contacted Wendy and had her whip up a smaller power source for the island, Randidly could fill the interior with puzzles and traps that made the journey to the center of his vast jungle gym all but impossible.

Tatiana had the foresight to provide ample paper and pens in addition to her reports, and Randidly went to work with a deadly focus. Some part of him realized he wasn’t quite going about it in the most efficient manner, but Randidly already had the scent of an interesting project. The soothing sensation of a task worth doing buoyed Randidly away, causing him to completely lose track of time.

Without reservation, he threw himself into the designs for the first level of his underground puzzle. Randidly supposed that for the beginning, he should keep the puzzles rather basic. In addition, he made the first level tight and cramped so that kids wouldn’t want to hang around in it much. No, there needed to be a temptation to head deeper…

Congratulations! Your Skill Engineering Savvy (R) has grown to Level 155!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Experienced Creator’s Ingenuity (A) has grown to Level 108!

Congratulations! Your Skill Engineering Savvy (R) has grown to Level 174!

Randidly used up the paper Tatiana had provided much more quickly than he would have expected. But he supposed it was because he kept having a sudden burst of inspiration that forced him to redo the entirety of his earlier work, gradually enabling him to refine the shape of the first level.

But it only took a check of his Absolute Timing to realize he had worked for almost thirteen hours without even noticing the passage of time. His stomach rumbled.

Releasing a wry chuckle, Randidly promised to keep a better track of time in the future. He glanced over at the tent. Smoke continued to billow steadily outward. If he spent so much time working, likely the Xyrt Brigade’s cleanup was going well.

Which meant that he would have the chance to test his ideas soon. Randidly quickly got back to work.