I was bopping up-and-down violently as I waited for the final few bricks of quarried stone to be placed on my outer wall.
“Come on! Come on! Come on!”
Imu was still rather shaken by the reveal that System remembered everything, so he just lay atop Goldie despondently, while I flitted back-and-forth, urging my Slavers to slave harder and push the Builders to finish faster.
As the outer wall completed, I felt a force drag my essence back into the Settlement Core within the tree cave.
Congratulations! For evolving into a Castle Town, your list of buildings available has expanded and your demesne has grown to encompass the entire forest around your Core! Additionally, you are now able to establish farmsteads, hamlets, and villages anywhere within your territory!
WARNING: Your settlement is now hostile with every neighbouring village, town, castle town, city, and capital! You must fight to protect your settlement! Conquering your neighbours allows you to add their territory to your own!
“Toad! Toad! Wake up!!”
I flew out of my cave like a drake soaring across the sky, my essence form feeling faster and stronger than ever before. A quick look at my Essence Pond in the corner of my vision showed… well… the same as always… BUT! I definitely felt way stronger, as though my total available essence had tripled.
As I crossed the sky, I saw smoke rising from the outermost wall that protected the residential and mercantile in the north of my settlement. I also noticed that the innermost area of my settlement had changed, mostly due to the tall tree in the Castle’s gardens undergoing a colossal growth-spurt. Its canopy and long twenty-metre-long drooping branches now overhung the entirety of the castle grounds, like some protective dome of bark and impenetrable wood. Hopefully its huge shadow would not rob the life-giving light from the other plants that filled the many recreational areas of the Castle.
I found Imu sitting atop Goldie, not far from where the fighting was taking place, though just far enough that none of the action could reach him. Even if, by his own words, he was immortal, it was clear he had no desire to experience death.
He was busy ordering my Guards, Cavalry Men, Archers, and Sharpshooters. His ability to lead them was quite impressive, but, then again, two thousand plus years prior, he had been a feared leader of every non-whomen race.
“What’s happening?”
“We’re under attack by Earl Sharpee’s men. It’s only a small contingent, but they’re still quite strong, with their average level around forty.”
“How long have I been asleep?”
“About two days…”
“I’m sending Él,” I told him. The Jackicorn would devastate their forces for sure.
“I already called for her, but your Lord is refusing to let her get injured.”
“I’ll possess him and make him move,” I decided.
Before I could do such a thing, however, a ululating honk shook the heavens and earth. Then, from the distant corner of the forest an enormous monster lifted into the air and soared across the sky until it reached my settlement’s walls. I instinctively used my Appraisal on it:
Name: Goose4 (‘Honking Calamity’)
Occupation: Demi-God of Geese
Species: Hydra-Goose
Level: 239/100
Alignment: World-Ending Calamity of Evil
Faction: Geese vs. Literally All Other Lifeforms (except Baristas)
“Oh Lord… I knew it! It evolved again!”
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“Look! Someone is clinging to its back!” I pointed out, as the Calamity came ever closer, its four sets of wings flapping in an asynchronous pattern that was mesmerising to look at.
“Well spotted,” Imu remarked. “Wait is that…?”
Name: Yopi
Occupation: Barista Battle-Brewer (Iron Rank Adventurer)
Species: White Elf
Level: 19/100
Alignment: Misfortune-incarnate
Faction: Honking Calamity’s Personal Coffee-Brewer
“It seems the Goose4 let him live, after trying his coffee brew. I suppose that makes sense. It was quite delicious after all.”
“Only monsters like that foul drink! Well, monsters and white elves…”
“Am I a monster?”
Imu turned to stare at me with a deadpan expression. “…If you have to ask, you already have your answer.”
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Yopi had always been called unlucky, but his current circumstances truly took that to a new height. In a sense, it could be argued that he was fortunate to have survived being killed by the Calamity Goose, but it was only thanks to the coffee brew that had spilled out of his ruined rucksack when he had nearly been obliterated by stray plasma-fire shot from its toothed maw.
The last week had been spent brewing many barrels of the bitter drink, which the Monster devoured with gluttonous fury, each of its four heads needing their own barrel to drink from. He had barely slept all the while.
The only true upside was that he still had Popi by his side, who, using her limited repertoire of magic and unique perks, had managed to summon the various things he needed to brew using basic elemental magic and drawing from her personal dimensional storage, where she had, unbeknownst to him, kept tonnes of items he had thought lost or discarded.
Now, however, he was unsure if the last week had just been a grace period before his death caught up to him. He held on to the steel-strong feathers of the enormous Goose4, as it lifted from the ruined forest clearing and then soared across the sky, before nose-diving towards a group of sixty soldiers and mages, who were assailing the outer wall of the strange town he had brought Tabby to only a week prior.
Opening all four of its maws, the Calamity vapourised, obliterated, decayed, and electrified the host of fighters, leaving the walls of the town unscathed, before landing with its earthquaking mass and feasting on the remains of those it had just slain. When naught but ashes, blood-spatter, and errant bits of flesh remained, it once more took to the air and headed north.
It was all Yopi could do to cling on to his new Master’s body, as they flew up past the lowest layer of clouds, reaching parts of the sky that was devastatingly-frigid under normal circumstances. However, apparently-conscious of its White Elf brewer-slave, the Goose4 used some of its magic to heat up its feathers, and also made them softer and a bit like those plants that stuck to clothes, such that Yopi could release his fearful grip and be enveloped in the cosy embrace of its feathers, Popi hiding in his breast-pocket.
He had a brief thought that, perhaps, he was not that unlucky after all.
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“Did we just… get saved by our Nemesis?”
“It looks like it won’t return,” I added. “Look at the direction its flying.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be back to harass us again…”
“You’re being too pessimistic, Imu.”
“And you’re being unrealistic,” he replied.
“Anyway! I wanna see my new requirements!”
“It’s a doozy, so prepare yourself.”
With a chubby hand, he swiped the elements from his Encyclopaedia out into the air, so that it became illuminated text that I could read.
[Evolution Requirements]
Castle Town => Capital
- Build 3 Farmsteads, 1 Hamlet, and 1 Village within your territory and ensure they are self-sufficient -
- Repel an attack on your settlement -
- Defeat Earl Sharpee Inkledinkle Johnson and conquer his Castle Town by installing a new Lord of his Castle -
- Conquer and takeover all neighbouring Towns, Villages, Hamlets, and Farmsteads that are not allied with you -
- Build 1 Siege Factory and craft Engines of War, and utilise your Beast Inventor Workshop to also construct Beasts of War by combining Beasts with Siege Engines -
- Build 2 Barracks, evolve 2 Aristocracy minions to Commanders, and evolve 150 minions to Footmen -
- Build a Wizard's Academy and evolve 8 studious minions to Acolytes and then evolve them into Wizards when they have mastered an element -
- Build 1 Pacifists’ Guild Office and evolve 3 peace-loving minions to Diplomats and establish peace treaties with at least two other settlements of Town rank or higher -
“Let’s get to work,” I announced.
Imu sighed as he was wont to do lately. Actually, he had always been that way, so maybe it had nothing to do with me?
“I deserve a pay-raise, promotion, and long vacation, when I’m done with you,” he mumbled.
“You mean we won’t be together forever!?”
Imu looked suddenly horrified and began scrolling through his tome, but it kept turning up blank pages, which only made his expression worsen.
“Oh Lord.”