“Private, Lieutenant, and Captain, all have access to different facilities. Tell me your goal and I’ll tell you where to go. Also, you can get three pieces of free intel with your clearance level,”
“Exclude things that improve the soldier’s strength. Same goes for things like food and tools that aren’t special.”
“Hmmm… that’ll narrow it down by 45%,”
Zyrus was surprised at the sheer number of functions that the elf lady showed him. Pretty much everything imaginable was present on the Streit Bastion. Craftsman, military trainers, vehicles, arms for hire, and even a freaking planetary battleship if you had enough contribution points.
“Just show me what I can get in ten years,”
“That leaves 5%,”
“Much better,” Zyrus took the hologram from the receptionist and scrolled through the items. Some were given for free but were limited per mission, while others could be bought with contribution points.
What caught his eyes among the free items were two accessories. One was a name tag that monitored the location and vitals of the soldiers while the other was a portable inventory.
“Do my ghouls count as soldiers?”
This was the crux of it. Tags were useful on their own, but having 500+ extra inventory was what mattered here.
“They’re not summons so they should count. However, we need to draft an additional contract to limit the number of such beings.”
“Fair enough. Just count them as 500 soldiers for all the freebies, minus the food and such. Convert them into extra points as well,”
“Got it. You can sell the free rewards on the trading forum, but we’ll take a 10% cut and give you points right now,”
Zyrus chatted with the elf for half an hour before finishing the deal. Apart from the tags and inventory, he got surveying drones, pikes to mark areas on land, and a communication device. His map was also upgraded to assimilate all the new functions.
At last, he was left with a bit over 2000 contribution points.
‘Taxes sure suck huh,’
Few percentages here and there and now he’d spent 500 points without getting a single thing in hand. Nonetheless, he’d profit from this deal as long as he got what he needed.
Zyrus opened the tab which had a dozen items left. First on the list cost a full 1000 points.
[Altar of Order]
Cost: 1000 Contribution Points
Stabilizes the laws of an entire area. It is possible to influence certain laws based on the environment.
Note: The altar carries the flames of order, which are crafted based on the specified area.
The plains of Ilios were considered a single area. It was crucial to understand and stabilize the laws of the desert plains. While he could just brute force his way to the mission, he knew that the altars were necessary if he wanted to finish the next chain missions.
There were quite tempting items he could buy with the remaining points. Things that gave stat boosts and even some weapons of war that'd decimate an entire plain were up for sale.
‘My biggest strength right now is my army on Erath. So what I need is pretty obvious,’
There was an item that’d allow him to summon more of his troops.
[Spatial Pike]
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Cost: 750 Contribution points
A pike that connects two dimensions. The strength and stability of the connection will depend on the dimensions.
Note: There is a chance that the enemies might attack the connected dimension through the pike. Use the item with caution.
Lastly, he used the remaining 400 points to buy an item called Forge of the World. It was a single-use medallion that could be used to craft or process any materials present in the 10 Km radius. And just like the altar of order, they too were unique to each area.
Their price varied according to the assigned area as well. The maximum price was 500, so the amount he paid proved how many valuable resources the plains of Ilios had.
“That’ll be all,”
“Alright, here you go,” the elf took the mission parchment in her hand and placed three icons into it. The items were transferred to him just like that.
“Quite efficient. Is there a place where I can learn the spatial techniques?”
“Clearance level A is required to answer your question,”
Zyrus clicked his tongue and left with empty pockets. He knew from the start that this was a bottomless hole that’d suck everything from the soldiers. Only the strength they gained and the land they conquered belonged to them.
‘That’s what they want others to think anyway. As long as they’re under an invasion, nothing they owned would be truly theirs,’
The Streit Bastion was brutally efficient when it came to war. But this had nothing to do with him for the time being.
‘Time to get back to business,’
There was an item that caught his eye among the millions in the store. His first goal was to earn 10,000 contribution points.
This would allow him to summon 5 players from the sanctuary.
…
Zyrus went back to the same tunnel and activated the parchment. But unlike before, he wasn’t teleported without a clue.
‘I was skeptical about how I escaped in the middle of the mission, so that’s how it worked.’
This wasn’t a game after all. How could one just return to Streit Bastion from who knows where? The holographic screen before him answered this question.
It was, for all intent and purposes, a screen similar to auto save in games. He was so focused on the spatial technologies of the Streit bastion that he had overlooked another law at play – the Law of time.
Zyrus saw three different options on the screen. All of them accelerated time by varying degrees. It was incredibly difficult to go back in time, but the same couldn’t be said for reverse. It was within one’s powers to go into the future by approaching the speed of light. The faster you are, the slower time becomes from your perspective.
Time itself didn’t exist from the perspective of light. In the case of the plains of Ilios, all of his traces were erased with the powers of spacetime. His influence over the world was negated as even the desert he had conquered was once again populated by new creatures.
‘So this is the price I have to pay,’
It was similar to restarting the game. Unless he did something that had long-lasting impacts, exiting from the stage would be a waste of resources.
‘Fast forwarding time is only useful for either escaping or deploying some plans that took too long to complete,’
The three options in front of him were 1,5, and 10 years ahead of the time he left. He could always return at the same time he left, but that would be akin to suicide.
Zyrus remembered that there were 33 such deserts that made the plain of Ilios. They were tended by the farmer like giant, the one who fell at his hands. It was expected that there were different roles among the giants.
‘I can kill a guard or soldier of low level, but if a squad came then it’d be a disaster,’
The suspicious death of one commoner wouldn’t arouse much interest in the higher-ups. But what about a second, a third time? He couldn’t play with time acceleration as if it was a toy. That was gifting his enemies extra time to develop.
[You have selected a timeline]
[Accelerating time by 1 year]
[Note: The projected timeline is just a simulation. It is possible that the reality might not be as per the prediction]
Zyrus made the final selection, and with a green flash of light he was teleported to a different desert.
[Earth Movement]
He burrowed into the dune at the same instance. Catching anyone’s attention was the last thing he needed.
Zyrus went deeper and deeper until he reached the boundary of the plains. The best way to clear this mission was by conquering all of the 33 plains at the same time, and then defeat the giants who came to this farm.
But it was easier said than done. Before anything, he lacked a means of surveillance to infiltrate all 33 deserts at the same time.
‘I’ll use my summons as eyes and ears, while the ghouls will be the main attacking force,’
The abyssal warriors and drakes were too eye-catching. He needed the ophidian warriors who had more lizard-like characteristics to do the job.
This also aligned with his other goal - connecting Earth with this dimension. He pulled out a pike shining with starlight from his parchment. It was thin like a bamboo and as tall as him. At the same time, instruction on how to use the spatial pike also appeared in his mind.
‘I can’t understand its principles with my current knowledge, but I have an inkling as to how it’d work,’
[Summon]
40 ophidian warriors appeared around him and were almost suffocated to death. He protected them with his mana and summoned 40 ghouls from the parchment.
He created a dome of 100 meters radius with his mana and inserted the spatial pike in the middle of it. His mana was nowhere near enough to sustain this for long, so he had to succeed on the first try.