*Day 053*

Joram looked on as the latest batch of slaves were basically herded into Myriad Wonders and suppressed a sigh.

Not everyone had heard of his takeover of the business, nor had it spread very far yet that it was no longer a slave house. Which explained why all of those girls still looked so… lifeless. Well, most of them, anyways.

There were obviously a few who were new to the… experience, of being a slave. He watched as- what looked like- a Lion-kin glared daggers at anyone who so much as nudged her forward to keep the line going.

Well, none of them would have to put up with being a slave much longer. He smiled then, then blinked when the Lion-kin looked up at him. Her glare morphed into a death glare then, making him wonder just what was going through her mind right then. Well, he hoped that any misunderstanding might get cleared up quickly, though if things went according to popular media back on Earth, then he was sure that there would be countless opportunities for misunderstandings and assumptions galore to occur.

Which really didn’t appeal to him in the least. He’d always been a fairly straightforward person, preferring to chop down the proverbial bush rather than beat around it while running in endless circles.

Shrugging it off, he turned back to the list in his hand and suppressed a sigh.

He now had an additional 739 slaves, only fifty of which were males. And all of the males were the “pretty” kind, the ones who’d likely be… abused by whoever bought them. And all young. It would be easier to keep them from being traumatized in the first place than it would be to help them after having been traumatized.

Though, he wondered if there were Skills that could help with such things. Thinking about it more, he began wondering if [Cure: Panacea] covered that too. Especially given just how… easily, every one of his first two batches of girls had settled into their new lives at his place.

Thinking about it more, the ones who’d received doses of [Cure: Panacea] amongst the [Heroes] had also been… more chill, if he could put it that way. More relaxed in their integration into this world, for a lack of a better way to describe it. Sure, [Cure: Panacea] didn’t erase those traumatic events from a person’s mind, but it seemed to… remove any negative emotions surrounding said event, or events. If he was right, that is.

Because, why else would they all be so… normal, after everything that had happened to them? He couldn’t quite explain it away due to cultural differences, as he was sure that anyone taken from their lives and sold into slavery wouldn’t be happy about it, no matter their upbringing. Let alone anyone from Earth.

That Kyoji kid had [Cure: Panacea] as well, and he was sure that Kyoji had, at the very least, used it on his classmates more than once. Though, given the reports that Avi sent him, he wondered if Kyoji had used it on some of the others who’d been rescued at the same time as he’d been.

He’d need to gather more information on all that, though he wasn’t sure if he should be the one gathering said information or not. He was, after all, very well… respected, amongst those girls, so he wasn’t sure they’d be entirely honest with him when sharing with him. Maybe Avi, or one of the other instructors would do the interviews. Perhaps Shae-ra.

“Yeah, that could work better…” he muttered to himself before heading back to his new office to start on the veritable mountain of paperwork that had formed with his takeover of Myriad Wonders, as well as what had come with his other projects in the capitol.

“Now I’m regretting letting all of the others just take off…” he muttered as a tall, chilled, mug of ginger beer appeared on his desk.

Taking a sip, he sighed happily, then got back to work.

* * *

J2, or “Kinkade”, as he preferred to call himself, looked at his progress and frowned slightly. Even with the boost in stats and the library in his head, he still didn’t consider himself an interior designer. If anything, his sense of esthetics wasn’t… developed. Like, he was sure that his daughters would have even made fun of him for this.

“Abstract? I know that you took a fancy to Escher, but that’s not how physics works…” Avi said, tilting her head to first one side, then the other before continuing. “At least, not in this universe, anyways.”

Kinkade sighed, then [Recycle]’d the little diorama back into one block of white stone.

“I’ll leave the decorations to you then,” he said, then looked over to the west and nearly sighed again. “How’d I wind up drawing the short straw?” he asked, though more rhetorically than seriously.

Avi shrugged, likely knowing that he didn’t expect an answer from her.

“So, ‘Dean’, what’re your academic plans for everyone? Especially now that you’ve gone and bought over seven hundred more slaves.”

He suppressed another sigh at the thought of the increased paperwork involved in all that, then shrugged.

“Basically, the same things as we’ve already been doing. Though, I’ll certainly have to expand the fields to make sure that there’s enough food for everyone.

“That said, I’m sure that we’ll have enough meat for everyone considering how popular the meat farms have been,” he said, referring to the Dungeon he’d made to both level-up everyone as well as to provide a variety of meat for their diets. And crafting materials. Can’t forget those.

“That’s a given,” Avi said as she shook her head slightly. “I know that everyone is already a close-knit group, given that the two batches were bought so close together, let alone being on the smaller side of things. But. What’ll you do if the new ones don’t get along with everyone, let alone cause other… issues?” Avi asked, giving him a look at the end.

And he’d already thought of all that, of course. That said, he hadn’t come to a decision on how to tackle all of that yet, not without coming across as some sort of slave buying dictator who used his power to direct every aspect of their lives.

Seriously, he could just leave the slavery seals on the newcomers, though that also came with issues. Not the least of which would be the trust issues that came from treating people better or less than other people. Which meant that he’d have to trust them not to cause issues in the first place.

Though, with only fifty young men surrounded by nearly eight-hundred young women, he could certainly foresee a myriad of issues arising. And the older girls dressing up the younger boys in dresses was quite frankly the least of those worries.

“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll figure something out,” he said with a slight frown. “I should have held off a bit longer, but that auction wasn’t going to wait for me.”

Avi nodded her understanding, then gave him one of her brilliant smiles that was in no way reduced due to her being a “mere” High Elan.

“We’ll figure something out,” she said with a confidence that was contagious. “That said, I don’t think that making rings for every new person will be feasible, let alone advisable. Especially since there might be some who accept the offer to go home,” she said, then continued when he gave her a confused look.

Stolen story; please report.

“We really don’t want it getting out that you can make such things, let alone everything else. Especially when you’re still building your base of power here. If some greedy noble or merchant catches wind of what you can do, then you can bet that they’ll do what they can to get their hands on you, one way or another,” she finished ominously, setting his mind to whirling about as the possibilities practically buried him.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be a good thing,” he said, now worried that someone would target his wards more than them targeting him.

He could, after all, escape any such confinement in any number of ways. The kids? They wouldn’t be so lucky. Well, unless they wound up with abilities like he had, anyways.

Come to think of it, he should begin testing to see if any of the younglings had the psionic spark.

“Hmm, good idea,” Avi said, nodding and once more showing that they were still connected in that way. “Any surprises that they can pull out would certainly help if they manage to get into trouble.”

“It’ll just… take a while,” he said, though out of anyone he could be talking to, Avi certainly knew that. “Anyways, we’ll get them taught the best we can,” he said, nodding as his thoughts once more drifted to what the other “Js” were doing.

“Maybe you guys can arrange some sort of rotation? Make it a bit more fair?”

Kinkade nodded again, though more fervently this time as he looked over at the paperwork he’d been putting off doing. Sure, Avi was there to help, but he was the one who’d need to design and build the various expansions that would be needed. Like the six new apartment buildings that he had to start building. Like, right now.

“You’ll be fine,” Avi said, patting him on the shoulder.

* * *

J5, or Cyd as he was calling himself due to… reasons, happily watched as the terrain flowed by under him. He was really enjoying just flying around, though he imagined the endless sea of trees that he was currently flying over was just as… monotonous as flying over an actual ocean would have been.

That said, he still very much enjoyed flying. Especially since it was his astral construct that was doing all the hard work. As for what he was doing- besides enjoying the feeling of flying around at speed- was looking for traces of the World Maple, as he was calling it. Well, so was the System, so there was that.

He felt that he was getting closer to it, though, as the trees had been getting taller, older, and most importantly, more powerful. Or, rather, that their presence was getting stronger. Which he equated to overall strength anyways, so it really didn’t matter what he called it.

Then his thoughts were interrupted when a giant bird- hawk, eagle, or whatever it was- collided with his transport, sending him tumbling down in a rather fast freefall. Because when that bird collided with his astral construct, it had astonishingly done enough damage to destroy it instantly. Heck, he could also feel that he’d taken a bruise or two from the initial impact.

Frowning, he stabilized himself in the air with a bit of [Telekinesis] before his M2 used [Sustained Flight]A to free-up [Telekinesis] for the upcoming fight.

A quick [Analyze] told him that it was a [Giant World Eagle], making him wonder just what the heck that was supposed to be. So, he handed off that task to M2 as the rest of his Minds buffed him up.

Not too soon, as the [Giant World Eagle] quickly- much faster than he’d expected- came about for another pass at him. He noted that it seemed especially angry as it screeched so loudly that it set his jaw to clenching as he prepared a [Decerebrate] for the oversized chicken.

But then he saw mana swirling around its wings before an absolutely massive blast of wind hit him and sent him tumbling through the air again. Which had him once more thank his sturdy constitution that kept him from ever experiencing motion sickness. Or even carnival ride sickness.

When his vision finally leveled out with the rest of his body, his eyes widened further as he saw a claw already closing on him.

Now a bit more humbled, M4 used [Dimension Hop] to quickly escape from that predictably painful claw. He appeared ten metres to his left, and a bit above the giant chicken who was already turning its head his way. Surprised at its ridiculous reaction speed, M5 used [Fold Space] this time, now appearing on its left side and a good hundred metres above it and finally starting to take the [Giant World Eagle] seriously.

So, he pulled out his Mindbolt, the long-ranged shoulder cannon version, and lined up his shot as the [Giant World Eagle] looked around in confusion. He made sure that his third loadout was used, which included [Distance], [Linked Striking], [Collision], and [Psychokinetic Burst], then decided to use [Through the Eye of the Needle], focussing on damaging its Intellect Attribute, then fired just as the [Giant World Eagle] finally looked up.

The shot took the bird below its neck in the upper sternum, and blew a massive swath of feathers away, while also drawing some blood. Not enough to satisfy him though, but at least the Intellect damage seemed to have done something to the [Giant World Eagle].

Even as it screeched in pain, its head lolled to the side as its eyes took on a glazed look to them. That was when the bird with a wingspan of at least sixty metres, began to fall.

“Super-effective,” he muttered to himself as he watched the bird plummet to the ground. Well, to the treetops, then promptly through the canopy with insanely loud cracking and crashing sounds.

Impressed with just how effective his shot had been, specifically the [Through the Eye of the Needle], Cyd flew after the [Giant World Eagle] to see if it had actually died yet. Sure, he hadn’t gotten the notification from the System yet, bug given that he was a [Fission] of Joram’s, he wasn’t entirely sure that he would be the one to get the notifications for anything that he did.

When he finally got to where the [Giant World Eagle] had come to a stop, still impressively high in the boughs of the trees, he saw that the bird was indeed still alive. Sure, it was still breathing, but he wasn’t sure that it would be breathing too much longer given its current state.

It had somehow managed to hit a branch in just the right- or wrong, given the results- way that it had speared the poor bird right through the chest, astonishingly right where he’d shot it. Anyways, that branch must have punctured a lung, as blood was just pouring out of its open beak. Even as he watched, the flow of blood was already starting to slow down, indicating a failing heart.

Less than a minute later, he got the System notification.

Congratulations!

You’ve slain a [Giant World Eagle], level 42.

- For defeating an opponent at least twice your level, extreme experience is granted.

Shaking his head as he got his answer, Cyd flew down to the dead bird and looted it, and smiled at what he got before watching as its form vanished in the fascinating way creatures did when looted. Once all of the tiny motes of light were gone, he looked over his gains.

Congratulations! You’ve looted the following:

- 1 Grade S Core, High Quality

- 913 Gold Coins

- 83 Silver Coins

- 92 Bronze Coins

- 32 Wing Feathers

- 8 Tail Feathers

- 4 Claws

- 250kg of [Giant World Eagle] meat.

He blinked at the number of gold coins shown, the wondered if the Bank staff would eventually ban him from making huge deposits like he had with his bronze and silver coins if he wound up having to do the same with the gold that he was very likely to accumulate as he searched for the descendants of the World Tree.

“Too bad I can’t get bars or even half-bars when looting,” he muttered to himself, then blinked as another notification came.

Reward preference noted and updated.

Not entirely sure how to take that, Cyd wound up shrugging uncomfortably before vocally giving his thanks to the System. If it could hear and react to his wants, he sure as heck would start treating it as though it were sapient. Which meant giving ones’ gratitude where it was warranted. No sense in risking being rude, or even offending the System because he withheld his thanks for one reason or another.

Shaking his head again, he re-created his astral construct ride and flew back above the canopy. As he went, he wondered if those bird parts would be any good for crafting. Why else would the System have gone and included them in the rewards?

* * *

Joram blinked at the Notifications, then idly wondered if he should have Cyd go and power-level them, as it had also come with a whopping 5 levels! Then he blinked again at the sheer amount of loot he’d gotten, then blinked yet again at the System “updating” his loot preferences.

Yeah, that’s going to be a thing, isn’t it? He wondered silently as he thought about the System, then shrugged it off. If there was nothing a person could do about something, then it was entirely pointless to worry about it.

So, instead he turned his attention to the last notification that was actually blinking at him.

Congratulations!

You’ve reached the maximum level in your current Class!

Congratulations!

You now qualify for a new Class! Please select one before you level up.

“Well, that answers that question,” Joram muttered to himself as his last window popped up and populated with an absolutely ludicrous list of possible class options for him.

“What question is that?” Erys asked curiously while laying on the couch in his office at Myriad Wonders.

“Whether or not I’ll need to look at a new Class if I levelled up,” he said, distracted by going through just the Paths that it was offering him.

“Wait. You levelled up?!” Erys asked, obviously shocked and more than a little bit curious as to how he’d managed to level up when they’d been together the entire time.

“[Fission],” he said, then turned back to the blue window. “And this’ll take a while,” he said, suppressing a sigh.