Elinor moved between the various groups of her rising kingdom, evaluating what each one needed while the hurricane kept them bunkered down. In tandem, Butter went out with the ri’bot and Carlos’ hunting parties to get more supplies, Death Orbs, and levels. However, she swiftly changed tactics upon seeing a pattern.
While the military units were swiftly advancing within the Poor-Grade, the serving staff was seeing very slow progress. Once their tasks had been swapped to supporting the camp and sorting the goods, their experience skyrocketed.
Days passed in the sporadic weather of pelting rain, hail, deadly winds, and lightning that shook the air, yet counter to Valdar’s expectations, it only got worse. Tiffany provided further insight that hurricanes could last as much as two to four weeks on Earth, and being on another world meant it could be either longer or shorter.
The former elder chief hadn’t seen a storm like this in most of his life and was concerned about damage to the structures of his tribe since they lived on a cliff shelf. The race could easily weather the punishing tempest themselves, but their way of life could see complications due to the flooding.
Luckily, the sanctuary Nicole and the Plant Callers made for them could be tweaked and modified as needed. They widened the waterways and made corrections in its integrity from her father’s input with his architectural engineering background.
On the brighter side, it gave Elinor more time to prepare her citizens for the trek through the harsh jungle. She could also continue to negotiate with the two remaining clans—Valdar was more or less already in her pocket since her gains were also his clan’s.
In the meantime, her maids had set up a table and ramp to get to the top of a rig so she could observe the full breadth of the giant space. It was hard to believe it used to be a field, now turned into a megalithic domed edifice.
She’d grown her forces by quite a bit over the last ninety hours, learning the day and night cycle of their new world was six hours longer than Earth’s. Despite the feeling of losing her home, it did excite her to explore their adopted planet and its secrets.
Naturally, she started with the list of individuals on the list she’d had the humans craft since she’d promised them priority in returning their loved ones. While in the process, there came requests from these resurrections, such as wishing for them to be brought into the Serving Court instead of the Military. She accommodated where available, yet it wasn’t without its challenges.
In some instances, the raised individual was a tad agitated at the swap. One such case was Angélica Tesoro, currently a Poor-A Grade Maid, who had been a sniper in the Columbian military. Her husband wanted her to be in a less dangerous position, and that had apparently caused some contention between them since she loved her previous job.
It wasn’t like the Serving Court couldn’t fight or gain combat roles, but their stats and Feats were severely diminished. In addition, their method of leveling diverged from the Military Court. Still, Angélica did her work without complaint, despite the sour attitude Elinor felt through the Nexus.
As for entertainment, her attention was often taken by Valerie Meyer—a US influencer, fashion model, and hobby violinist—she’d been raised in the Musician role of the Serving Court.
In conjunction, one surprise was her Assistant Head Maid, Theresa Pecha, who was quite the multi-talented mother of two older teenagers. The worldly-wise woman had been among the fastest to level, already rising to Common-S in her Serving capacity and unlocking the Songweaver Class within the Magi Core’s Resonance Division.
The motherly Latino woman was shockingly beautiful, poised, and tempered. Much of her body was restored upon reaching Common-S, like many of the other higher individuals that filled key stations of the Serving Court. Only a few parts of their skin showed their undead roots, which could mostly be covered by clothing.
Her husband and older teen boys were blown away by the change to their dark-haired, lime-eyed, stunning wife and mother—the lighter color representing her musical-based Division. Her talent in playing the piano and singing was also quite advanced due to being the pianist at one of the local churches.
Valerie was very close to reaching Common-C, and was excited to see if she would enter the same Division as the rising role model. As could be expected from a somewhat popular US model and influencer, she was a bright, bubbly blonde, who enjoyed dressing up in all sorts of accessories and fashion, along with a passion for dancing.
Elinor appreciated the music the two were able to provide, further uplifting the now hopeful humans in more ways than one with their restored appearance. It wasn’t only the humans inspired, as well, judging by the ri’bot that were enjoying their performances. The cadence of the propped-up, damaged piano, singing, and solemn violin mixed with the tapping rain and rolling thunder outside to set quite the atmosphere.
Day by day, the number of people that saw her as a ruler and drew to her banner was increasing. Unfortunately, there was a downside to [Rising Empire: Budding]. Her growth had slowed down to a frustrating degree after hitting seven hundred and fifty followers out of the three thousand or so living humans she had to convert.
Yes, the humans as a whole more or less saw her as their ruler—or bent the knee to her—but that wasn’t all there was for them to count toward her Feat. They had to view themselves as citizens of her empire and not slaves.
It was a puzzling development that Tiffany wasn’t so thrilled about, but her father counseled that it would work out in time. Butter was more in-line with her dad’s way of thinking, and the pair had become a lot closer as they got to know each other.
Elinor kept herself somewhat aloof, putting all of her energy into plotting a way forward and handling some of the negotiations. It helped now that she had an expert in the field in the way of Klaus, her Ambassador, that would be sent to the Clavex territory and Nalvean Empire.
Although, there were times she found herself smirking and spying on a few developments happening within her Nexus, such as the playful games her father and Tiffany engaged in. It often involved the competition they had with their growing factions of mortal magic users or knights.
Tiffany’s entry-level Witches and Warlocks were far less inclined to do the darker side of the art, but so long as they could learn a few basics to help with their eventual production needs of food and silk products, then it was good enough for her—at least for now.
On the other hand, Edmon had a host of young boys and even girls that wanted to be just like her ‘cool’ dad, roaming around on his giant black Percheron warhorse. It was usually Mika that acted as the instructor for them since the ri’bot was also in the process of training her father in actual combat.
Sure, being raised to his station and title had given him a lot of downloaded battle tactics and skills, but it was nothing to what the experienced ri’bot warriors could offer. It was a win-win since it had him engaging the excited High Warriors to test their metal against his impenetrable armor.
Her father had a hard time keeping up with Garu, though, meaning he’d have trouble against the cultist Xaria of the Komath. He had the Feats and many ways of trying to make up for his lack of actual combat experience, but he was determined to close the skill gap as soon as possible with the help of her undead System.
Another dessert-like entertainment she nibbled on from time to time was a growing flame between her Ambassador and Head Maid, both of which were the only ones who currently managed to break past the Common-S into the Uncommon Grade.
The pair were fun to watch as he tried to make the former assassin of the cartel—and a far older woman in her sixties—smile and laugh. Her story was a shocking one, and originally, she’d been extremely disfigured and scared due to how she’d escaped her former employer, having grown up in the sex trade.
She had lost her brother as a young girl when they were taken from their family and separated, and that was only the beginning. Her life was filled with woe and trauma, which forced her to grow cold and meticulous not to anger her handlers, developing a penchant for murder—not that she enjoyed it.
The girl grew into a beauty, despite the scars on her back from the whips they’d used to punish her when a teenager, and her task was changed to drawing in officials and wealthy businessmen that vacationed in South America.
As time went on, her successes brought the eye of the bigger players in the cartel, advancing her to a more deadly job of using her looks, charm, and adaptability. Aimed at hard-to-reach targets, it was here she stepped into the role of an assassin.
Once her beauty had started to fade—despite her desperate attempts to maintain it—her usefulness began to dry up, and she hatched a plan to fake her death. She did escape, yet it left her disfigured in the process, and she ended up in this little town to retire in.
Now, there was a young, strapping politician courting her, which made Elinor smile and chuckle at how the woman strung Klaus on. He knew what she was doing, but played into it for fun, creating this sort of dance between them that eased the monotony of the storm trapping them.
On one of her resurrection sessions, she discovered another German girl that the torlim had found in the mud and dug up; a missing tourist girl from a murder case over ten years old, but the clumsy pre-teen maid provided more entertainment for Elinor while giving Nicole—the Dryad girl—someone her age to be friends with and help through her trauma.
Adoncia Vences—one of the original maids she raised—was having a heart attack with her younger brother wanting to join Edmon’s Argent Dusk Knights. She had regained most of her ability to speak after becoming Common-A, being one of the few maids, such as Angélica, who obtained EXP through a mix of combat and duty-based tasks.
It became clearer that it was possible to overlap some roles within the Military and Serving Courts when Adoncia obtained her Class, yet one would take dominance. She became an Elite Warrior, blue eyes changed to gold upon advancing to the Class, and her temper was beginning to show as Elinor observed her.
The girl certainly had one and could be quite assertive, which made her a good possible candidate for an Assistant Head Maid role in the coming weeks as she raised more. It seemed most of the humans with loved ones to be raised wanted them in a serving role and not to be sent into danger.
Elinor was fine with such sentiments since humans weren’t amazing in combat roles in the first place, considering she had more advanced species she could raise for that purpose in this alien world. It also helped to have a serving staff that understood the culture she’d grown up in.
Her living Defending Core and guard was receiving more and more recruits after Virgil and Gloria—two of the human ring leaders the community had grown to trust—joined, and even in the few days they’d given themselves over to the training, results were being seen.
Gloria used to be quite chubby and appeared to be quite self-conscious about it, but as she fell into Edmon’s ranks, a change began to occur that more than one woman observed, and the same could be said with Virgil.
The woman’s fat melted away, and her short stature grew, bringing her to stand from her 150 cm height to 170 cm. Her countenance brightened instead of diminishing, showing that those that entered her living army could pull from not only her affinity but Butter’s, as well.
Virgil also drew more women’s gaze with his change, developing a solid physique and a more rugged appearance that appeared to represent how he wanted to look.
Her powers to mold those who served her were swiftly spreading amongst various groups, sparking many of the women to want to join either Tiffany or Edmon’s circles, which was where the bulk of her citizens came from.
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Sadly, since she currently only had two Royal Court members, options were limited, and they only needed a certain number of recruits. She assured her anxious citizens that more positions would open in the future.
It wasn’t just combat roles her undead were filling; one such individual that fell into a dual serving category was a woman that had struggled with sickness her entire life, having earned her doctorate from inside a medical bed.
Luisina Aristizabal had obtained one of the Seeds, the same as Carlos, that Elinor absorbed when restoring the woman to life. It appeared to be a rather malnourished Seed since it only gave her a single level, or it hadn’t fully integrated into her, but upon reaching the Common-C Grade, she gained the Clergy Class.
Between cooks, ground keepers, and other positions, her Serving Court was thriving with the sharp influx of human dead she had resurrected, reuniting families. With all the new followers and advancing Feats, she had nearly ninety Intelligent and over two hundred Unintelligent undead—mostly ri’bot or torlim. It still wasn’t enough.
Levels were slowing down for her after her competition against the ri’bot clans had come to a close, and with each passing day, she tried something different to further test this System.
At Level 9, she got her first equipable Feat, yet left it pending since she couldn’t possibly get rid of her current three selections of [Butterfly II], [Phylactery I], and [Artificial Body II].
When hitting Level 10 at the start of the second week, she obtained the ability to select something called an Ultimate Feat; yet again, upon looking at the options of Utility, Attack, and Defense, she left it for now.
From what she could tell, every five levels, she had the opportunity to choose something far more powerful, and until she discovered what her fifteenth level would be like, she wanted to leave her options open. She had to see if there was a pattern.
Elinor ceased raising the dead on the fourth day to fulfill the requirements to bring Phylactery to the next Grade. She spent much of this time discussing items from their world with Fennel, Nadraca, and Valdar, bartering and explaining why they needed certain items.
It was concluded that due to the terrible storm, Fennel would inform the Roxim Chief that Elinor would be at this sanctuary location three months after they started their journey. It would give her time to settle a lot of affairs with Valdar’s grandson—the current chief of their clan.
Nadraca was resistant in quite a few negotiations, yet she managed to get her to budge enough to lend the humans three pairs of garments that would be returned with interest. It did kick some women in the butt to join Tiffany in order to have even basic clothing for the future and to develop skills, including magic, they could fall back on.
A bitter part in some people’s minds that prevented them from joining was the fact these powers relied on seeing her as their ruler. Stubborn men and women sulked in their groups, mumbling to one another about plots she may be having as an undead overlord. She mostly ignored them since, at the end of the day, they were helpless without her.
Once everything had been divided and instructions were given to the Roxim on the basic use of firearms, Elinor smiled at the vast majority of the goods that lay on the Delthax side of the sanctuary.
She had managed to bargain every bullet as a powerful tool for the Roxim to gain, and the exciting part was that Tiffany informed her that they had the means to create gunpowder. Near the colossal, old quen’talrat city-fortress was a volcanic zone that was filled with all sorts of minerals and metals to be explored and cultivated.
Elinor had also managed to hide many of the explosives and pass them off as unimportant to give them a head start on developing areas that required heavy demolition. Considering the Delthax made their home on the shelf of a mountain range, her father said there might be a need for the substance, which she passed off as more construction material.
Audrey, her OCD terrorist maid, had obtained a rather interesting Class after reaching the appropriate Tier and Grade. Rather than joining Carlos in his Class, she was assigned to the Magi-Science Division in the Magi Core as an Alchemist. The meticulous woman would be instrumental in developing more explosives.
There were much more Serving personnel she raised, learning about each of their talents and expertise over the next week, and nearly twelve days after the hurricane started, the storm died down to more manageable levels.
When they prepared to leave, Klaus joined Nadraca’s side to help the Clavex bring their supplies to the rafts they hoped had somehow survived the storm; if not, they’d spend another two weeks crafting new temporary vessels to see them back.
Somehow the High Priestess had kept the sadistic snake woman unconscious throughout the past two weeks with the help of a tonic her people made. Tiffany wanted to get a sample, but the clan was very secretive and resistant to her probes, ruffling her feathers a bit.
Elinor didn’t want to rock the boat too much; they’d gotten away with more than they should have through careful maneuvering. They’d even managed to keep a pistol with some ammunition for herself—her father’s insistence—not that she was particularly versed in firing it. Instead of carrying it on her person, she had whatever maid was on duty handling the item.
A flurry of activity was inside the sanctuary as they got ready to leave; nervous laughter and chuckles were passed between the humans, unsure what to expect, but Quin was doubtful they would do well, despite the gear they’d been equipped with.
She had her undead scouting ahead with Mika and the Delthax scouts, finding them the best route for the humans to take through the winding jungle. The massive trees were larger than the redwoods, with roots sometimes the size of houses that blocked their path or created rolling mounds that needed to be climbed.
Elinor sat on a chair with a seat belt that had been fastened to a harness; Quin wore it around her body. The pre-teen gorilla Elite Warrior normally stood tall and straight, unlike her Earth-like counterparts, and refused to believe Ke’Thra’Ma, her glorious leader, had died until seeing the fallen fortress for herself.
She was more than willing to accommodate her desire now that the storm had eased into a light drizzle; they had to start making the journey in any case.
Valdar left a few guards behind, including a Plant Caller he could communicate to over long distances, but, not wanting to be outdone, Tiffany performed a ritual with a ri’bot skull that would create a permanent communication hub across a forty-kilometer range. She would need to make a relay station at some point on their journey, but that didn’t require a skeleton.
Setting out on their journey, Elinor entered her inner world to sit more comfortably in her chair while directing Quin to set off for her city-fortress; she wanted a look at it, at the very least. In the coming months, she’d be back to explore it more thoroughly to see if it was suitable to be made into a more permanent home.
Her father wanted Garu to go with her, but she superseded his desire by pointing out that their goal was to make as much noise as possible to invoke attacks from hostile clanless since she needed more bodies.
Butter would be directing things in her absence, and her twin was growing quite fond of the power Elinor entrusted to her. She gave a lot of authority to the blonde to maintain what she’d already built while she focused on further expansion.
Studying her status screen, she let the haunting organ play in the backdrop with falling rain and thunder; she was rather fond of the ambient noise after the hurricane if she excluded the howling wind—a modest rain was good enough.
As she’d learned more about the System, it filled out, showing her what was previously hidden. At Level 12, she reflected on how much of it had filled out with each new bit of information she’d puzzled out. Immediately, she regretted not seeing if she could refine her maxed Feat. If she got another chance at Level 15, she’d take it.
Currently, her biggest issue was the roadblock many of her undead had reached in their advancement. Before she sunk any points into anything else, that had to be resolved.
Tiffany and Edmon had been raised to Uncommon-S, the maximum her units could currently reach, and while they hadn’t budged in the last two weeks, Quin had gone up to A-tier, and Garu to C-tier. The Ethereal Clan scout gained the Subclass of Mistwalker within the Hunter Class, providing him methods of tracking and killing those he marked.
The Serving Court was far, far easier to level, or, at least, that is what it appeared, yet it was likely due to them not being in an actual war; this was one of the reasons she wanted to provoke clanless raiders.
Still, even her Serving Court was hitting a block, but not in the Tier department, which was something of note. Instead, whenever there was a block, it came when trying to move into the next Grade, stalling upon hitting S-tier. Levels didn’t seem to be a problem, continuing to rise, even for Tiffany and her father.
The pair almost seemed to be having a competition to see who had the higher vantage point, making little bets—Tiffany always teased some kind of kiss, but her father was ruthless—a domination game was his department, dictating what the Witch would wear that day.
At the moment, Tiffany was in a peach summer dress with a duck head mascot that somehow managed to make it into the pile; it had many of her young disciple Warlocks and Witches snickering at the typically terrifying dark arts specialist. To make matters worse for the woman, if she didn’t reach level ten by the end of the day, she had to put on the flippers.
Elinor would have never guessed it, but the woman actually somewhat got off on the games—losing or winning—and she had to wonder if her mother had been like this in private. For a certainty, her father knew the woman far better than Elinor thought he would, seemingly proving to him that her mother was still a part of the Witch.
Butter didn’t help, egging them on and waiting to see what punishment would come next from the teasing Witch and Death Knight’s games that appeared to be catching the eye of many women in their two circles. Elinor was glad they were at least finding a way forward.
She dismissed the thoughts as Garu contacted her before they went out of range from the Nexus; soon, they’d be on the march to their temporary home amongst the Delthax ri’bot.
“Empress, am I disturbing you?”
Elinor shifted her cheek against her knuckles while staring into the blue flames of her fireplace, crossing her legs in the opposite direction.
“Is there a problem?”
“No. We are setting the positioning now and making sure everything is secured on the torlim. Valdar just needs to say goodbye to the other expedition leaders, and we will be on our way… Is it possible for me to discover what happened to my clan when we reach the Wixum border since they are allied with the Delthax?”
Considering the requested quest, Elinor’s gaze shifted to her sister’s side of their shared space, bubbly and bright. It amused her that once the blonde had gotten introduced to the concept of photographs, she’d lined her side of the room with captured memories. Of course, she could understand the desire to record them since she had almost total amnesia.
“Perhaps once I finish speaking to Valdar’s grandson. Valdar has a lot of sway, but ultimately, it is up to the current chief to make good on his promises. Depending on how things turn out, making contact with your clan might help us… or it could bring further enemies to our doorstep—as you know, powerful enemies. We need to be careful at our current stage.”
“I… understand, Empress.”
He pulled away to continue his assigned mission and tasks.
Elinor could sympathize with both Garu and Quin’s apprehension to believe what others had told them. For the gorilla, how could someone she saw as a literal god have died? Garu saw his clan as the strongest ri’bot, bar none. Yet, the god had fallen, and the Ethereal had faded into history like the mist they were known to be so close to.
There was a lot of mystery to be solved in the coming months as she explored this new home, and as a snack to nibble on, Quin brought her to the home she’d grown up in.
“Empress, we’re almost out of the jungle. Look, you can see the Ke’s Spire from anywhere in the valley!”
Leaving her inner world, Elinor resituated herself in the chair. Quin was using thick vines as if born hanging from them, swinging and climbing up the giant trees to reach the canopy-like sky. Breaking through, Elinor gazed across the sea of yellow, purple, and red-leaved trees to a rising cliff that blocked the view of what lay beyond, yet one thing was visible—a spear piercing the heavens.
Peering past the light mist that lingered, she spotted a spire so large it dwarfed anything she’d seen on Earth, shooting into the low-hanging clouds; the fact such a thing was still standing after a century without any maintenance brought back the tales Quin told her about the type of technology they used—a runic language of magical properties the Ke brought back from the far north in his conquest.
It’s… certainly grand, she whispered, noting its obsidian black appearance that would likely shine in the sunlight. There’s a city below it?
“Kel’mal’tha! It is glorious, Empress—just beyond the ridge and treeline. I know the Ke will want to meet you. I just… don’t know why the ri’bot are still here—he was intent on eradicating all the weaker races…”
Doubt in the quen’talrat child’s voice, she jumped down in almost a free fall, forcing Elinor’s braid up as her stomach squirmed like she’d entered a roller coaster; she practically had.
Keeping her cool as the jungle blurred past her, mist taking the place of the rain in the lower levels, she saw creatures slowly beginning to come out of their hiding place; naturally, the giant ape terrified most, sending them racing away in their passing.
However, when they finally reached the edge of the barren volcanic shelf of the great quen’talrat city of Kel’mal’tha, Quin froze in place. Sweet voice low and frightened for such a terrifying, four-armed goliath of an animal.
“Empress… why is part of the outer wall broken; how could it be breached with the city’s defensive runes? The inner wall isn’t damaged, though, so…”
Elinor recalled the story Valdar shared with her; it had been the Golariex—one of the Great Races, as the ri’bot called them—that had done it. The elder’s stories couldn’t compare to the real thing.
Much of the city was obscured in the mist, but the walls were likely over three hundred meters in the sky, thick beyond belief. Yet, Ke’Thra’Ma was supposedly ten meters tall, so it was made to accommodate the giant gorilla’s race.
Dozens of kilometers of towering, black-stone wall remained perfectly intact from side to side, and the only damage was from the Golariex attack that had allowed the ri’bot to be the fodder needed to open the gates for the others.
However, there was only one thing running through Elinor’s mind when viewing merely a slice of this intimidating city that was grander than any fortress she’d seen in fiction on scale and breadth.
This is a capital worthy of an empire.