*Day 093*

He was glad that the move went so well. Well, that there hadn’t been any accidents, anyways. Aside from more than a few tears, cases of shellshock, and a trainload of hero-worship, it hadn’t been so bad for him.

That said, he still had much work to do. He would need to finish walling-off his new city, a city that also still needed naming. But he’d get to that. Eventually.

With his limited resource pools, he figured that it would take a good week of work to get the wall built up to where he wanted it. Even then, he was highly inclined to add things like automated turrets to the walls to dissuade any unwanted visitors, but ultimately held back. There would be time for that sort of thing later, he was sure. In the meantime, having the Gals around to keep up security surely helped. And even the various kids who’d already levelled up a whole bunch would dissuade a fair number of threats.

Besides, he also needed to get around to making sure that the various ghosts, phantoms, and other incorporeal entities that inhabited the Great Forest were dealt with. He’d already gotten more than a few terrified complaints from the various “demons” in just the past few hours than he’d ever gotten. Well, that was misleading. He’d never gotten any complaints before now.

Which begged the question: was it because he’d moved them further into the forest? Or was it something else?

Either way, he’d need to speak with Myra and Asami to see what the Sprit Foxes could do about the various wandering souls wreaking havoc amongst his people. And, much to his disappointment, he’d actually missed the Fall Festival while he was busy in the capitol dealing with paperwork, politics, and persistent pursuers of many kinds. He’d been told that it, along with the Spring Festival, were basically there to appease the various spirits of the Great Forest through various rituals that also involved the Sprit Foxes.

But that was for Kirkwall and its environs, not his little city several kilometres away. Which meant that he’d need to find a way to either appease the various spirits or purge them in some way. Though, thinking back to Asami’s new class, [Shinigami], he wondered if she’d gotten any Skills that he could make use of. If he could copy some of her useful Skills, then perhaps he could go about dealing with the various issues himself.

Or he could still ask Asami, which would have two major benefits. One, she’d likely level up from using her Class Skills and Features. Two, it’d free up his time. Which, with so many of his clones already doing the various things that he needed to do, was remarkably still packed. Maybe he should take a step back?

Did he really need to be doing all of this? He really had no obligation to make the world a better place. He wasn’t responsible for the happiness of the citizens of this queendom, let alone any other country, empire, or kingdom out there. He could just sit back and relax. Not needing to worry about what was happening around him. Just take his being isekai’d to another world as divine intervention aimed at letting him live a relaxing life of leisure and subsistence.

He could just [Summon] any new video game, computer, console, or tech he’d need to keep entertained. He could live a quiet life. Collect the massive library of physical books he’d always dreamt about having. Keep those close to him close and safe….

Which appealed to him more than he thought it would, but also less than it would have before arriving on Iria. He’d made good friends here. He’d even met many wonderful women who genuinely wanted to be with him. He’d also come to care for those he’d freed from slavery more than he could have ever imagined before coming here. Before seeing the naked gratitude in their eyes. Before remembering what he’d been taught growing up. Which basically boiled down to Noblesse Obligé.

So, after all those musings, he decided to keep going as he was. Well, mostly. He’d focus on his people and their wellbeing. He’d focus on getting his satellite network fully deployed, the defenses of the coast- though the Aethrian Empire seemed much more chill than he’d been led to believe they were. That said, he’d keep his promise with Bryana and make sure the coastline was secure. Mostly against monsters, though. They still existed and sucked.

He would keep looking for the descendants of the World Tree, because that was just plain fun. Even his little Tower project would go forward, because he still wanted a truly safe place for his people. And with Dax now finished with the storage token project, he was sure that the progress on the Tower would accelerate dramatically.

So, really, he’d be doing much the same as he’d already been doing, but with slightly different intent than before.

Which led him to thinking about those women who’d decided he was the one for them.

Aside from those closest to him, he was honestly at a loss with how to deal with them. He could make a general announcement, but that seemed… cold. But speaking with each of them individually would take him a year, or more. Especially given how quickly he seemed to be ticking up that counter on [Harem].

But. Did it really matter? If they weren’t actively bothering him, what harm did it do to let them continue as they had been?

Well, his pessimistic side could certainly come up with a very long list in a few moments. That said, would it do more harm to rid them of their fantasies? He really didn’t know. People were so unique from one another that the perfect solution for one person could be the worst possible thing for another.

So, if those many women- he hoped they were all women, anyways, but wasn’t deluded enough to think that was actually the case…. Anyways, if those many people were content to watch from afar, then he would be content to leave things as they were. Well, maybe not content, as the Achievement was honestly cringy. But at least he could accept it for what it tried to do.

Joram shrugged uncomfortably, releasing the unconscious tension that came when thinking about things like that. He then looked around his office and wondered how difficult it would be to replace all of those replicas with functioning versions of them. Now, due to safety issues, he’d need to make a separate space to display those functioning versions, but he was okay with that. Yeah, that’ll work, he thought with a grin.

He then shifted to his Realm and looked around. It had grown considerably since he’d first gained the Realm with Avi’s help. Though, it was still mostly undeveloped. A feature that he was more than happy to resolve.

Grinning, Joram got to work creating a comfy retreat and workspace for himself.

* * *

Aegis, aka J4, rubbed his chin in thought.

He’d been getting a good number of satellites up and synced with his servers, but he was now considering a more secure location for said servers.

Sure, they were two hundred metres below ground, with most of that distance through bedrock. But. Was it as secure as it could be? Not to him, it wasn’t.

So, he was considering moving the whole thing to orbit. He was also considering summoning something like a moon-sized space station. One remarkably similar to a certain infamous imperial space station from his childhood. But. Would that be overkill? Certainly. It would also be so many levels of awesome that he was barely refraining from doing it right then.

The biggest thing holding him back was, well, its size.

He wasn’t too worried about the mana cost, as he could simply save up by making Mana Crystals, or even using Dust Crystals- he certainly had enough piled up over the past several months with so many of him using [Schism] all at the same time. At any rate, the main issue was visibility. Oh, and gravity.

He didn’t want to freak-out anyone on Iria by dropping a new moon into orbit. He was certain that would cause untold chaos amongst the masses, let alone anyone powerful enough to try to do something about a new “moon” showing up uninvited like that.

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But its mass was also a thing to consider. Something that large would actually have a not insignificant gravitational presence to it. Which would alter the path of Iria’s moons, let alone affecting Iria itself. Tides would go crazy. And who knew what else would be affected?

So, he was holding back. Not dismissing the notion entirely, but working on the issues as he saw them.

He could deal with its visibility in the same way he’d done with the satellites, but he was sure that would be almost as costly as the station itself. He could just hide it behind one of the moons, which was certainly the easier, and cheaper, option. Which led him to wonder if there was life on the moons that he would also need to take into account.

But gravity. Gravitational pulls, influence, and interference.

But, what if he could do something crazy like mixing technologies? Making hybrids, as it were. He’d written about doing the same sort of things with his many stories about Altaea. So, why not? He’d certainly learned that the Multiverse was a thing, and likely as infinite as was posited by various scientists on Earth. So, could a universe out there exist that had both a moon-sized (and shaped) space station and a mass effect drive powerful enough to negate its mass?

And, if he was going for broke, could he add in more things? A hyperdrive was given, as that came with the base station. But could he include warp technology too? What about jumpdrives? Or even a portal-like function to get from point a to point b?

Could he also include something like Time Lord tech? Make it into both a time and relative dimension in space? If so, what would he need to power such a thing?

The idea of trapping a star going super nova into a repeating time loop of one Pico second just to harness the energy was a bit daunting. And, really, a bit unrealistic for what he needed. Though, depending on the size of the star captured, he could vary the output considerably. But, really, how much energy would he need to power such a space station?

He was sure that it would be more than what Earth currently produced. He was reasonably sure that it would be orders of magnitude greater than that, even.

Now even more curious than he’d ever been, mostly due to his increased capacity for learning and information processing, he decided to try summoning the schematics for his imaginary space station.

A moment later, and an astonishing eighty-two mana later- even after his discounts!-, he received a data chip. The galaxy far, far away’s version of a USB drive. He sighed. He should have thought about that. A moment later, and with another use of [Summon: All], though only paying four mana this time, he had a data pad that he could plug the data chip into.

Then he facepalmed. Even though he was familiar with galactic basic, he wasn’t anywhere near fluent, nor did he actually speak the language. Sure, he could translate each letter into its english counterpart, but that didn’t translate the actual language into english, just the phonetic version of galactic basic.

Going for broke, he tried again, this time taking a leap. Twelve mana points later, he was grinning with a Skill Book in hand. Specifically, a language Skill Book. One for learning galactic basic. One that quickly vanished as he used it, then paused to appreciate the odd feeling of having so much knowledge flooding into his brain.

Ten minutes later, Aegis was pinching the bridge of his nose, brows drawn down.

“I need to learn soooo much before this’ll make any sort of sense,” he muttered to himself before calling upon the most awesome Skill of all time to produce yet more Skill Books, a veritable library of them.

First came the physics books. Not just for that galaxy, but because his intention while using [Summon: All] had been for him to understand the physics involved in creating such a space station, he’d received several universes’ worth of books. Which wound up being twenty-seven volumes. Only three of which weren’t time lord knowledge.

Then came the chemistry Skill Books, followed by time theory, energy theory, engineering, and particle physics. When he was done, he had sixty-three Skill Books that he’d need to use, and he wasn’t looking forward to the incredible headrush that would come with using so many heavy Skill Books all at once.

But given just how driven he was to really know how things worked, of how those various civilizations had managed to get to their individual peaks, he wasn’t dissuaded. Just… cautious. No need to overload his/their head to the point where he knocked himself out. Baby steps, as it were.

Grinning, he picked up the first physics Skill Book he’d use. The one on mass effect theory, as he was reasonably sure that it wouldn’t be quite as taxing as the others. And if it had overlap with the others, he was sure that building up his knowledge base slowly would offset the aftereffects of using increasingly denser Skill Books.

At least, I hope that’ll be the case, he thought with a fatalistic grin.

* * *

Dax took a moment to appreciate the ridiculous knowledge appearing in his mind before setting it aside to concentrate on what he was currently doing. Building the Tower.

Well, more planning at the moment than actual building.

Still, when the flood of knowledge from the space wizards (both flavours) came through, he stopped. Then looked at what he’d planned, frowning. Then scrapped his plans with an exasperated sigh.

“Bloody hell,” he cussed, knowing that he could no longer proceed in his ignorance.

Sure, what he’d had planned had been theoretically sound. Solid, even. But.

Given what he now knew of dimensions, space, and time, it was… lacking. He’d originally planned to just create a separate Realm for each level of the Tower, connected through a network of portals. Now?

He was sure that he could create a single Realm, though with many layers to it. Considering that each floor’s Realm would have still needed to be attached to the Prime Material Plane to keep them stable, he now knew that it would have caused a not insignificant amount of instability in the region to have so many demi-planes tacked onto the fabric of the world so close together. Even with his new ability to stabilize dimensional boundaries.

But making one demi-plane, or Realm, and layering it would solve that issue. The problem was just how complicated the Realm’s Seed needed to be to accomplish such a feat. Given his new ability to reinforce dimensional boundaries, stability for the Realm wasn’t an issue. Nor was planning each layer of the new Realm.

It was more akin to planning out, in your head, a CPU’s architecture, layered with data storage, layered with RAM, layered with a GPU, with each layer requiring its own unique operating system, while planning built-in cooling for each layer. All in the compact form of a standard CPU.

Which was why he was now assigning his extra Minds to the task. Not only him, but he’d also requested his other selves to re-task a few of their minds to help figure things out.

Dax sighed, shook his head, then got back to work. He wasn’t sure how long it would take to complete the Realm Seed, but was oddly… pumped, to get it done.

* * *

Avi felt Joram’s excitement through their bond and couldn’t help but smile. It was the most excitement she’d felt from him to date, which was saying something given just how interesting his life had been these past few months.

Leaning back in her chair, she stretched her arms out and enjoyed the feeling of her trembling limbs. She still loved the feeling of having a body. Even if said body was currently stuck behind a desk in her office at the Academy.

Still, it wasn’t so bad. Especially given the newly installed computers which made the paperwork so much easier to handle.

She grinned again, this time due to just how similar Joram Smith and Joram Aneath were. Sure, they were the same person… at the time they’d been split apart, anyways. But given their separate experiences, they’d developed in different and significant ways.

But they were the same at the core. Like, they were still incredibly geeky. To the point where she was sure that she’d been influenced by it. Especially given that her Other Self had already built a version of the space station that Aegis was currently planning out, or how Aneath was dealing with the sudden influx of women flocking to him.

Both were a bit too passive, though. Just letting things happen wasn’t exactly the best course of action to take when those things weren’t exactly comfortable for him. Still, he was a grown man and could decide things for himself. That said, people needed help. Lots of help.

So, she would continue helping him in the background. And foreground, because he was still pretty dense when it came to certain things. Things like his self-esteem and the ability to acknowledge that he was good enough a person that people would be genuinely attracted to him even without the System tilting things more in his favour.

Which led to her current plans.

Each of the new residents of their growing city would need to attend several “orientation” classes. Classes designed to introduce them to the social norms and mores that were unique to Iria, let alone the growing culture here. The classes would also introduce them to the various technologies popping up here, as well as letting them know their options in terms of jobs and work life.

Sure, given just how self-sustaining Joram had designed his city, there wasn’t much for the people to do aside from living relaxing lives. Very much like a utopian society. But, there were things for people to do, things to learn, areas to grow.

She would also include a section in those classes that taught them about Joram. Not anything weird, just what he was like and what his general expectations were for his little city. Well, she would also subtly include Joram’s desire for a quiet life, undisturbed by flocking droves of people. All because he was a humble man who had no expectations of fawning gratitude or worship for the good works he accomplished. That he only did those charitable deeds because of who he was and not because he wanted the praise.

Which would then lead to the next bit of the curriculum that would focus on teaching them to be the same way. All aimed at making everyone more like-minded. At having them genuinely want to help one another for the sole reason of bettering the lives of those around them. Which, in turn, would better their lives. A society that helped one another was infinitely better than one that aimed to one-up one another.

And if she could get everyone’s expectations to shift to that line of thinking, then she was sure that the hero worship they were all experiencing would soon fade to mutual respect. Which, in turn, would lead to fewer people being added to Joram’s [Harem] Achievement. She hoped.

People were weird, after all.

Shrugging away the tension in her shoulders, Avi got back to planning out said classes. All the while grinning like a madwoman as she reviewed Avi Prime’s memories of Aneath’s struggles to avoid a fate similar to Smith’s fate.