Maria brought Alexa and Lilah back to the town and began scouring the surrounding area for low-leveled monsters.
It was a bit disappointing but the lowest level monsters they found in the area were level 40. There wasn't a single monster that was below level 30 let alone a single-digit level monster. Alexa's future was looking a little bleak at the moment.
If they don't move away from this area and look for a lower level area, then she wouldn't be able to level up safely.
As for how she was able to survive in such a daunting place for so long completely eluded Maria, but that was the least of her worries. She needed to find a leveling area for Alexa but their current location just didn't permit that.
"Do I have to leave this place for now?"
The day was about to end so Maria decided to stop their futile search and return to the town. She'd think about their next course of action tomorrow. The more important thing right now was to finish rebuilding the lord's estate.
"B-Big sis... what'll we do?" Alexa asked worriedly.
"Don't worry about it, Alexa. After we rebuild the town a bit more, we'll go explore areas further away from here and look for suitable monsters that you can defeat."
"...Okay...thank you, big sis..."
"No problem~ it's the least I can do for my favorite follower~" Maria replied. She quickly picked the little girl up and began rubbing her face on Alexa's.
"U-Uhm..."
"Eheheh~ so cute~"
"... Master..."
It was the first time Lilah was seeing her Master act this way and she couldn't help but smack her forehead in embarrassment. She decided to make sure that from now on, no one else saw her Master's shameful behavior.
*****
The 3 quickly arrived back in town and walked towards the lord's estate. When Maria walked past the gates, she was happy to find a large and neat pile of rocks and lumber on the side.
"Master, we've finished collecting all of the required materials," Ash quickly came forward and reported.
*DING*
You have fulfilled the required amount of resources needed to repair the [Lord's Manor] Would you like to proceed with the repairs? YES/NO
"Yes, sa~"
Maria immediately tapped on the [YES] and the resources in front of her disappeared and the Lord's Manor began to slowly repair itself.
Time remaining before completion: 00:59:57
"I have to wait for an hour?"
Maria looked at the in-game clock and saw that it was already late in the evening and the skies itself were already dark.
By the time the mansion was completed, it would be quite late already. However, it wasn't like she couldn't speed up the completion. Maria read further down the system prompt and saw that she could speed up the completion by providing more resources and having her people participate in the construction.
Right now, all she saw were construction tools moving about on their own as if they had some kind of magic spell cast on them but if workers were doing the work, the completion time could be sped up.
Also, if any of the people she assigned to work had any construction-related skills, it would help with the completion rate.
"Alright, I want you guys to go back and acquire more materials! I want this done in half an hour! Hey, you two idiots over there! You go and grab some tools and help repair the manor! Ash, take the other three and go get some more stones and lumber!"
"Yes, my Lady," Ash didn't complain and gestured with his head at the remaining people who were kneeling on the ground not too far away from them.
They immediately saw it and quickly scrambled to their feet and followed after Ash. The other 2 vampires quickly scrambled towards the manor and randomly took the closest tool they could get their hands on before continuing what the tool was previously doing but at double the speed, it was going.
Maria grinned happily at how eager her new underlings were being. She looked around and quickly found a flat rock in the vicinity and sat down on top of it.
A few minutes later, Ash and the others came back with a lot more materials and besides Ash, the other underlings began working on the mansion. Maria was always tyrannical towards Ash, but even she deemed that it was beneath the Vampire Duke to work the repairs of the mansion.
It was as if Lilah knew what her Master was thinking and couldn't help but mumble to herself, "And yet Master, you send him to go lumberjacking and stone mining..."
"What's that Lilah?"
"Nothing Master—Ah, more importantly, isn't it great that our house is almost finished?"
"Haha, yeah~"
Maria turned towards Alexa and said, "Hey, Alexa, now you no longer need to sleep on the floor or in the cold! You'll be able to sleep on a proper bed now!"
"Uhm, thank you...big sis..."
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Hehe~ it's nothing my little cutie~"
"Ahem, Master, please be a bit more appropriate. Your underlings are over there," Lilah quickly warned after seeing that her Master was going to do something.
"Heh? O-Oh...Okay, Lilah..."
"Please pay attention to your image a bit more, Master. It might be okay if I or Ash saw you, but please refrain from acting out in front of everyone else. You're going to be the leader of a faction real soon so you should pay attention to what you do!"
Being reprimanded by her usually loyal and yes-man fairy, Maria felt a little bad and took heed of her words.
"I'll keep that in mind, Lilah~ but why so serious? I mean, we haven't even established our fac—"
*DING*
The [Lord's Manor Lv. 1] has been successfully repaired!
Quest Update! Sub Objective 1: Repair the Lord's Manor (Complete) Reward: 1,000 Stones, 1,000 Lumber, 1,000 Food, 1,000 Ore, 1,000 Universe Gold
*DING* *DING*
Your Faction's HQ has finally been established and you have enough followers! Minimum requirements to create a faction have been completed! Please select a name for your new faction: _______
"Eh?"
"You were saying, Master?"
"...Never mind..."
Maria sighed before thinking long and hard about what she wanted her faction's name to be. She found a good name and inputted it into the name window.
*DING*
Take heed, you cannot change the name of your faction after it has been established. Would you like to proceed? YES/NO
"Yes, sa~"
After tapping on the [YES], a world announcement was immediately aired to all of the players in the game.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
World System Announcement: Player 'Maria' has successfully established her faction: [The Dire] For accomplishing this incredible feat, player 'Maria' will be recorded in the Universe Tale Hall of Fame and she is rewarded: 500,000 Universe Gold, +5 Levels, +50 FSP, Seal of the Dire (x1), and the title [Queen of the Dire]
Maria remembered the name being quite a famous faction for a game her big brother used to always play during his elementary and middle school days. The name was rather fitting for her current circumstances so she chose it without hesitation. Also, it sounded really cool.
"Hey, cool. I've got another title!"
Title: Queen of the Dire Rank: Epic Description: Title awarded to the founder of [The Dire]. All stats increase by 5%.
In your presence, all allies of the same faction will have their stats increased by 10% as long as they are within 100 meters of yourself. The buff lasts 10 minutes on an ally after you or they have moved away from the buff's area of effect NOTE: This Title is transferrable in the event the holder permits it or if the Throne of the Dire is wrested away
"This ring... is exactly what I needed!!!" Maria exclaimed in jubilation before she immediately equipped the ring.
Item Name: Seal of the Dire Level: 55 (Level equivalent to the [Queen of the Dire] title holder's level) Rank: Mythic Category: Faction Exclusive Ring +10 LCK Effect 1: Plus 100 additional Quick Inventory Space
Effect 2: Plus 1 Skill Slot
Effect 3: 50% Increase to EXP rate
Maria didn't particularly care about the other effects of the ring except for the third effect. She had always been miffed about the absurd amount of EXP she needed to gain a level so she was always looking for any items, skills, or titles that'll help her gain more EXP.
Before, she could only watch as her follower gain an EXP boosting skill and felt bitter about it, but now that she had an EXP boosting item, she was on cloud nine. She could now at least level up at the same rate as normal players...probably.
Maria still didn't know this, but the skill slots in Unitale were limited. She had been learning skills left and right from the start of the game, but she didn't understand the significance of the skill limit just yet. There was a 30 number limit on how many skills a player could learn and by now, Maria had already used up 25 of those skill slots.
It was already quite clear how important an additional skill slot was in the game, but she didn't know about it yet. If Maria did ever reach the limit, the only way she could learn more was to delete her other skills and make room for the new ones.
Of course, the game did have more powerful versions of the basic skills that she already had, but the only way she could learn it now was if she was lucky enough to find a skill book since she could no longer buy it from a class instructor.
For now, none of that concerned her because her home was finally finished.
"Hehe~ let's go in—ah wait, a minute. I gained a few levels so I should distribute my FSP... [Status]."
Maria quickly distributed her FSP from her level up and rewards and her status screen now looked even more broken.
Name: Maria Level: 55 Race: Fallen Angel Class: Dark Priestess
Subclass 1: Magus
Subclass 2: N/A Titles: Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, World Traveler, Queen of the Dire, Wolf Slayer, Boar Slayer, Sprite Slayer, ... HP: 7,300/7,300
MP: 211,300/211,300
SP: 746/746 EXP: 0/5,500,000 ATK: 714 (+200~300)
DEF: 958 (+15)
M.ATK: 2,219 (+20)
M.DEF: 11,093 (+15) STR: 126 (+10)
AGI: 263
VIT: 357 (+8)
INT: 4,200 (+26)
LCK: 11 (+10) Free Stat Points: 0 Universal Currency: 667,412 Gold 54 Silver 11 Copper
Vanhal Currency: 14,600 Blood Gold
Faction Currency: 501,000 Universe Gold
"Hmmm... it looks much longer than before..." Maria said after taking a look at her long status screen.
"Well, whatever. Let's go look at our new house~"
Maria cheered and immediately skipped her way towards the newly refurbished mansion. Her 5 new underlings were sitting near the entrance of the mansion in exhaustion. When they saw her coming, they immediately stood up at the ready and welcomed her.
"M-My Lady..."
"You guys can sleep outside for now! Or you can look for a not-so-broken house in the town and stay there! Remember, if you try to escape..."
"N-No, my Lady, w-we will never do that!"
"Yes, my Lady, we're forever loyal to you!"
"Y-yeah!"
"What he said!"
"Please believe us!"
Maria glared at them before smiling and saying, "Okay!"
After she said that, she skipped into the house and began looking around.
Behind her, the 5 underlings all released a relieved sigh and went to find a house in the town.