With wide eyes, Dana began to walk around the budding factory that Clara and Sienna had worked together to establish. It was clear that it was still far from complete. However, seeing the building materials piling up in the warehouses, as well as the drones that Clara had put to work making… well, more drones, she couldn’t help but wonder. “Sienna, I thought I tasked you with training the army? What are all of these things doing here.”
“Logistics training.” Sienna answered with a simple nod of her head, Clara taking the initiative to explain.
“An army is more than just fighting, right? If we’re preparing to be able to move with another party, that means that Sienna’s army needs a logistics unit, as well. When I asked her about it, she was more than happy to use this factory as a testing ground for those creations.”
“I see.” Dana nodded her head, feeling that it made sense. In truth, logistics had never crossed her mind for her shadow army. She never considered using them to support another force, as they were a force unto themselves. Still, she couldn’t argue the logic behind the idea. “Well, what is the first thing that you’re making, then?”
“It’s these drones!” Clara announced happily, pointing to the drones flying about the warehouse. “These are relics from a machine civilization in Fragments of Acidia, found by none other than Elisae. Tubrock helped restore them, and set a few basic programming tasks for them, such as the ability to self-replicate within set parameters, and I’ve been working on installing additional blueprints.”
“Once I’ve got an army of construction bots, I want to expand the factory. Sienna set these monsters so that they can live off of ki, and I go the boss to set up respawning ore veins. So, the first order of business will be to place monster nests over these ki veins, and let them directly harvest the material.”
“You got… respawning veins?” Dana asked, her brow twitching. “What are you going to do about the mana siphons?”
“The what now?” Clara blinked, before her eyes went wide. “Oh… oh, I hadn’t thought about that.”
The reason that mana siphons weren’t a problem with the Mage Heart veins of Fyor was that they were all positioned directly beneath the crystal spires, which passively absorbed the mana released by them, and then evenly spread it over the entire layer. On the other hand, there was no such safety net for the ore veins set up in Clara’s world. Sienna’s eyes lit up, raising one hand while the other hugged Kama against herself. “I can make mana absorbing monsters.”
Dana smirked, shaking her head. “No, that doesn’t fall under your task of training the army. Clara got herself into this mess, let her figure out how to fix it with what she has available.”
Clara gave a small grunt as this task was pushed unceremoniously onto her, having to think it over. “Sienna, I’ll need more scouting bats. I need to have this entire planet mapped out before the mana density becomes too high. In the meantime, I’ll get to work on designing an atmospheric refiner that can harvest ambient mana above a certain density. I remember seeing something like that when I was going through recent innovations.”
Dana nodded her head. If it was just more of what Clara already had access to, Dana wasn’t opposed to that level of help. However, creating entirely new monsters to solve a task unrelated to her original purpose was not something that Sienna needed to worry about. Thinking that, she turned her head to the taciturn familiar. “So, I assume that you have something to show me for the army? Or have you focused all of your attention on this ‘logistics’ project?” She asked with a raised brow.
Sienna simply shook her head, creating a black portal behind herself. “Training has been good. I can show you.”
Dana nodded in satisfaction, stepping through the black portal together with Sienna. On the other side of the portal was a vast plateau of Deckan, and Dana could see an orderly horde stretching out. Hundreds of rows of shadowy figures, some of them humanoid while others appeared more monstrous.
“I see… have you created anything special on this side, as well?” She asked, to which Sienna nodded. The familiar pointed off to a distant mountain, Dana’s eyes narrowing as she enhanced her vision.
Sitting atop the mountain was a black-skinned ape, a shadowy rod leaning against its shoulder. Seeing Dana’s clearly confused expression, Sienna spoke up. “Based on Udona’s story of the Great Sage Equalling Heaven.”
“Great Sage…” Dana blinked. “Sun Wukong? You made a shadow beast version of him?” She asked in surprise, to which Sienna nodded her head.
“Was easy to find the necessary pieces. It consumes a lot of energy to train one, though. Only have two right now. The other one is in Lorek.”
“You’re having them learn cultivation.” Dana spoke up in an understanding tone. “How strong is he?”
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Sienna tilted her head at that question. “Other one is fighting immortals. He didn’t seem to be at a disadvantage.”
Dana nodded her head, clearly happy with the news. “That means that they’re at god level, at the very least. Are you planning to make more than the two, or do you have another project now?”
“Only two.” Sienna responded simply. “Male and female. They can make more themselves. Right now… making something else.”
“Oh?” Dana glanced away from the Monkey King… or Queen, maybe? She couldn’t really tell. She simply looked at Sienna expectantly. “Show me.”
Sienna nodded her head, creating another portal. “Great Sages are for fighting enemy commanders. This is for fighting armies.”
Dana followed Sienna through yet another portal, to a region veiled in a cloak of night. Sienna glanced up, and Dana could see that this literal cloak of darkness was attached to a massive, skeletal figure. It carried a scythe of black bones as large as its own body, letting out a mad cackle every few seconds.
“An undead?” Dana furrowed her brow, worried what Irena would think of using something like this as an armed force. Thankfully, Sienna shook her head.
“Just appearance. Watch.” She sent a mental command through the World Shadow, the giant skull looking down at them. The shadow of its cloak spread out, and a shrill cry filled the air. Hordes of black beasts ran forward on all fours, little more than legs and enormous mouths lined with sinister teeth.
Dana let out a sigh of understanding. “So instead of having its own attack power, it creates armies of lesser beasts.” She could tell why this one was reserved for fighting armies, rather than singular entities. “Then, what was with the formation we saw before?”
“Cannon fodder.” Sienna answered simply. “Trained the monsters that already existed, before working on special ones. Those monsters go out in waves while the three generals are preparing. If it can be handled without involving them, is best. We still have shadow dragon, after all.”
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It didn’t take long for me to find the Maze of Adventure, and I could see the line as people signed up to enter. Just looking at everyone’s appearances, I could tell that this was an event catered more towards those with plenty of coin to spend. Though, that was to be expected of a divine ability turned into a commercial endeavor. At the very least, everyone would need to pay the divinity cost to activate the ability.
After joining the line, I was quite surprised to find that it was moving rather quickly, taking only a few minutes for me to reach the front. “Good afternoon, sir.” A receptionist said to me, gesturing towards a sign displaying the prices for the maze. “Would you like to opt in to having your experience recorded? If the quality is high enough, it could be adapted into a movie, and you will receive a royalty fee.”
Well… that was surprising. Still, I shook my head. “No thanks.” I responded, pulling out a black gold coin and placing it on the counter. After that, the receptionist smiled again, directing me to stand in a golden circle.
“Just stand there, and the effect will activate. I hope you have a grand time.” He said, watching as I moved into the circle. The moment I did, I felt my vision blurring. Before I could register what was happening, I was standing on a circular platform, surrounded by doors.
“This will be the one and only time where the choice you make is given in such a fashion.” A voice spoke from above. “Each of these doors represent a genre for your journey. Once you choose them, you will be on your path.”
I gave a small nod, looking around. There were dozens of doors, each with tags such as ‘Adventure’, ‘Futuristic’, ‘Historic’, ‘Mystery’, ‘Monster’, and more. As I came here for an adventure, I naturally made my way to the ‘Adventure’ door.
As I walked through the door, my vision once again turned black. I could hear the familiar humm of magic, and the gasping of voices. Opening my eyes, I found myself standing within a magic circle, surrounded on all sides by hooded magicians. Standing in front of me was a pink-haired elf in royal attire. “Sir, may this humble one ask you your name?” She spoke in a reverent tone.
Looking down, I found myself still in the body of my avatar, nodding my head as I said the name that I prepared with this body. “My name is Lucian Gray.” I felt a strange power in my voice, but at the same time… it was clear that I didn’t have the normal abilities my avatar would possess, like the divine ability of Illusions.
“Sir Gray, then.” The elf spoke with a bright smile. “The kingdom is under siege. As a last resort, we researched a method to summon a hero from a distant world, praying for salvation. Please, save this land and its people.”
…So isekai stories are popular nowadays, huh? I’m surprised. Didn’t think that would catch on in a setting that already has multiple worlds like this. I gave a small chuckle, the princess looking at me in confusion. “I will help you.”
When I said that, her face lit up, as if she were about to rejoice. “Thank you, sir Gray!” She crossed her arms in front of herself. “In that case, there isn’t a moment to lose. We must immediately begin your training to familiarize yourself with this world.”
I nodded my head, but kept a cautious gaze on everyone around me. Without my World Sight, I couldn’t keep as close a watch for any hidden threats. But, I wouldn’t let myself get dragged into any nasty subplots. I’ll take a hard pass on any compulsion enchantments or anything of that nature.
That said, it was quite interesting to see that they ‘disabled’ the normal magic rules in this simulation. Most likely, it was replaced with an altered version, but I would have to wait for the ‘training’ to begin before I experienced that. As such, I simply allowed the elven princess to lead me from the summoning chamber, glancing back at the pair of guards that followed behind us.
This story is likely to end with either victory against the great evil, or my ‘death’. I don’t know if there is a time limit, but that means that I’m unlikely to face anything truly unresolvable within the first scene. This isn’t one of Lifre’s stories, after all.