《The God System》 -1 Prologue Able was sitting at his desk in his apartment knocking his head against it in boredom. Able is bored with life now that he has done everything. All the way from helping an old lady cross the street to becoming the number one swordsman in the world. He has climbed Mount Everest, became the richest person on Earth, and sky dived without a parachute. He was labeled as the number one most suitable marriage candidate since he was sixteen, he has everything in life, except excitement. "It''s so lonely when you are at the peak" Able sighed in resignation. He felt there was no joy left in life now that he has reached the apex. He has no challengers, no rivals, and no excitement in his life. He has beat every professional in all extreme sports fields and has visited to every place in the world and now has nothing left to do. He could learn some academics, but he felt that it was too boring sitting down and studying all day. He wanted to go outside, He wanted fun! Able has been in this state for two years already by the time he was twenty years old he had already stood at the top of the world, with no equal. He has thought of getting an apprentice, but he was only twenty two this year, only old people get apprentices! He doesn''t want to be seen as an old man. Sighing Able rested his head against his desk "I wish god could give me some excitement in my life. Maybe he should send me to another world like in those light novels" Able said in boredom. *DING* |Requirement met - Activating The God System| |Prepare to be transported. A majority of bodily functions have been frozen to prevent any mishaps in the transportation. Please be patient, it will be much appreciated.| |Transporting in 10...9...8...7| Able''s was stunned for a few seconds before his eyes widened and excitement began to fill them. He wanted to jump in joy due to happiness, but couldn''t move. ''So that''s what they meant when they said they would freeze my bodily functions'' Able concluded. |...6| ''I am finally going to have some joy in my life'' He cheered for himself. |...5| His mind raced to try and remember all the words that were said in his head. |...4| Ok, so I got a new system it said, The God System. Will I be able to create a new world? New life? Or maybe I am an evil god, so I will have to destroy the world!''. Thinking of the possible occurrences had Able ecstatic. Either way this is going to be fun. |...3...2...1| |Transportation to Gaia has commenced| A white light began to envelop Able''s body blinding his vision. It was the purest white he had ever seen, like fresh snow from the tallest of mountains where no humans can go to pollute it. Roaring winds sounded through his ears blocking his hearing. Able let his body float into the sky and just relished this new experience. He could no longer think of anything except white and roaring winds as if these two things had taken control of his whole mind. After an unknown amount of time everything went quiet. He felt his body being dropped onto the floor and he opened his eyes. He was in a white space with nothing but a screen in front of him. The screen displayed a little town with villagers walking about doing their farming, or washing clothes in a nearby stream. |Please choose your title| ''Title? My name? It wants to know my name? Or is it a title like a username in a video game?'' ''Maybe it will answer questions like it does in all those light novels.'' Able thought to himself "What do you mean by title?" He asked the voice. This time a different voice appeared and it was a female one with a pleasant tone. "Due to being in tutorial mode questions are currently free. A title is what your followers will know you for. Some examples include The Goddess of beauty or The God of War and Blood." She answered. ''Ah so that''s it, my title needs to embody me. It should be about my main characteristics. How about the God of fun? The god of Freedom? No... those don''t fit me perfectly. OH! I got it!'' "I want to be the God of Thrill and Adventure" Able replied with a stable tone very sure of his answer. |Title has been accepted| |You are now a Level 1 God| |Please rank up, to unlock new privileges. The tutorial mode has now been deactivated due to claiming a title. I look forward to your progress God.| 1 Level 1 God Able was sitting on the floor mourning over his stupid choice. ''I can''t believe they didn''t even warn me that choosing a title would end the tutorial'' He lamented. "Is there anyone who will tell me what I am supposed to do?" Able asked no one in particular. "It will cost 10 faith points to answer that question God," The female voice told him. Able was confused "What are faith points?" "It will cost 10 faith points to answer that question God" She again replied without mercy. Able was ticked off. He wanted to throw something, but there was nothing in this white space to throw! First, they made him end the tutorial, and now they want him to pay for answers that should have been free! "Okay, I will pay for the answer of those two questions!" Able sighed in exasperation. "Faith points are the currency of The God System. You are able to get more Faith Points by having more people believe in you as a God. The stronger the believer the more Faith Points they will give you. Faith points can also be shortened to FP." She answered the second question first. "What you are supposed to do is spread your Faith to as big of an area as possible while leveling up at the same time." "So I am supposed to preach to people across the world?" He asked in befuddlement. ''I have been transported to a new world to be a proselytizer!?!'' "It will cost 10 faith points to answer that question God" She again replied like a broken record. "Okay for the time being don''t ask me to use these faith points the answer questions. Go ahead and answer them if I have enough points. And how do I check how many FP I have left?" He said in irritation. "You are not going to be a proselytizer, you will be the ruler of Domains, sort of like a king and the ruler of any Domain will automatically convert its inhabitants to their faith. To check your stats just say stats, or think it in your head and a screen will appear in front of you." "Stats, oh it seriously popped up. Is it touch screen or something?" "You are not required to touch, but it can be used that way. If you do not want to touch you can just focus on a certain part and it will select it for you." She replied ====================================== Name: Able Age: 22 Race: Arch God Title: God of Thrill and Adventure Level: 1 Dominions: Delphi Village (Inhabitants: 100) Faith: 4950 (Generate: 0 Per Day) Trait: None Abilities: None Assistants: 0 Subordinates: 0 Str: 10 Def: 10 Con: 10 Dex: 10 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Cha: 10 Per: 10 ======================================== "You get one free assistant because every new god gets an assistant and Subordinates are bought using FP. You can purchase both later on using FP from the Faith Shop." "How do I get to the Faith Shop?" Able asked with so many questions filling his head. "To open the faith shop just say Menu" ==Menu== ?Faith Shop ?Dominions ?Dungeons ======== "Wait what are Dungeons? I thought I was supposed to spread my faith, Do I just lock up all the non-believers?" Able asked confused at the new information. "Dungeons are used to guard your Dungeon core. When a Dominions Dungeon core has been destroyed the God that destroyed it gets Control over that Dominion converting all its inhabitants into his or her Followers. If a god has no more Dominions his god status will be revoked" She answered. "So my dungeon can be under attack right now and I will lose my Dominion?" Able asked in uneasiness fearing his new life would end before it even started. "No, you have a beginners protection shield that will prevent other Gods from attacking you for one month." Able sighed in relief due to this bit of good news. He opened the faith shop to see if there was anything useful in there that he could buy. ====Faith Shop==== ?Items -Tools -Materials -Food -Livestock -Locked¡ý ?Abilities -Locked¡ý =============== Looking at the shop Able realized there weren''t many categories. And none of the stuff in there was needed right now, so he opened the Dominion and Dungeon Tabs as well. =====Dominion==== ?Buildings ?Inhabitants ?Assistants ?Locked¡ý =============== ====Dungeons==== Monsters ?Traps ?Rooms ?Subordinates ?Locked¡ý =============== Looking at all the locked symbols reemphasized the importance that levels had to this God System. "What is the fastest way to level up?" Able asked the Voice "Oh, and what do I call you?" "You may call me Genesis and you do not have enough Fate points to get the answer to that question," Genesis told him in a matter of fact tone. "How many FP do I need to receive the answer to that question?" He asked now curious at the first question he was unable to get the answer to. "That question would require 1 Trillion Faith points to be answered" She replied with no care for Able''s feelings. Able was stunned at the massive amount of FP they expected him to get and decided that that question was not worth getting the answer to. "You said that I can get a free assistant right? How do I get one?" Able asked passing over his previous question. "Yes for a First time only offer you will be able to create your own Assistant for free. You will be able to make them in any form you want." Genesis replied. 2 Creating an Assistan "Yes for a First time only offer you will be able to create your own Assistant for free. You will be able to make her in any form you want. Within regulations that is." Genesis replied. "Oh! I can make my own assistant! Like Build-a-Beaver! Let''s get started." Able said with excitement. Able opened the Faith Shop and went to the Dominion tab and selected the Assistants. Under the Assistants Sub-Division Category, there were some options available to choose that looked like this. ===Dominion=== ~Assistants~ ?Select Pre-made ?Gachapon ?Self-Construct ============ "Self-Construct is an option, so I will be able to use it later?" Able asked due to a misunderstanding that he could only use it one time. "Of course you can use it at a later date, it would just cost a lot of Faith Points Depending on the Stats you add to your assistant," Genesis answered timely. "So since this one is free I could create an overpowered assistant that could wipe out the other gods'' dungeons?" Able laughed conceitedly due to his idea. He thought that the system was dumb letting him become the strongest by using one assistant. Of course, then he would again be at the apex, but he would be there with a lot of new experiences to try and no danger, so it was a genius idea. "There has been a restriction put on the free Self-Construction to prevent this from happening," Genesis said crushing his dreams nearly causing him to fall to the floor. Able sighed realizing he was getting ahead of himself thinking he could outsmart a system that created gods, so he selected the Self-Construct option. When he selected it an avatar appeared in front of him floating in the air while slowly rotating in the sky. The Avatar had no defining features and you could not even tell if it was male or female. It was like a mannequin and had plain clothes on. The first option that popped up was to confirm a gender for the assistant. Able picked female without a pause. The avatar changed to a female with no hair and the same clothes on, but she had a very beautiful face. After choosing the gender the age was next and Able decided to make his subordinate a 19-year-old. ''An adult would be better able to help manage my Dominion'' Able thought while nodding his head. ''And she will be nice to look at'' He thought while thinking of the possible merits. Under the age there was race and Able began to scroll through the races to find one that he thought would be great and he saw many different kinds. There was trolls, goblins, humans, vampires, titans, dragons, lamias, merfolk and the list went on and on. After scrolling for a while Able noticed that there were only five races he could choose from which were Beastkin, goblin, dwarf, orc, and halfling. He decided on the beast men race and the avatar changed to a default cat beast kin. He now had the choice of what kind of beast kin he wanted and he scrolled until he found a sheep and selected that one. He decided to pick one of the lower tier beaskin because this would allow him to have a higher level subordinate as a sheep beaskin would cost less FP than a tiger beastkin. He decided that having a subordinate that started off as Level 16 but was a sheep beastkin was better than a Level 5 Tiger beaskin. The Avatar now changed to a young sheep beast kin that looked around ten years old. She had curly hair that looked very comfortable. He wanted to mofumofu her hair right now, but couldn''t because the avatar was intangible. He was also confused and checked to see what age he input earlier and saw it was indeed 19. He left it as is and assumed that beast kin just aged slower than other races leaving her looking like a child. She was still as smart as an adult female, but acted like a child sometimes. Able went on to the next option and got to choose what color her hair and skin was. He chose the default pearly white hair and white skin. He was in a hurry to mofumofu, so he skipped the unimportant stuff. He also got to choose her accessories and there was a list of all the clothes and items they could wear. Able immediately chose the [Necklace Bell] and a one-piece dress that complemented her quite well. For her shoes, he chose some slip-on shoes that looked good on her. The [Necklace Bell] gave her improved defense and intelligence and it also made her look ten times cuter. ''Does that mean it improves her charisma as well?'' Able thought to himself ''Or is that just only for me'' Able was genuinely confused, but because it didn''t say in the items stats it improved Charisma he figured it was just because of his preference. He was now on to selecting her attributes and he was able to use a grand total of 160 attribute points on her for free. As he was only given a limited amount of options for the free Self-Construct option Level 16 was the max he could get for the beastkin. Her stats looked like this after he was done. Every person starts off with zero and gets 80 attributes to use when they reach level 1. After that, each level would give you 10 more attributes to use. The 160 attributes he gets to use aren''t included in the original 80 gained due to being Level 1. ====================================== Name: ??? Age: 19 Race: Sheep Beast Kin Title: None Level: 16 Trait: [Slumber Trance] Abilities: None Items: [Necklace Bell] Str: 40 Def: 0 Con: 20 Dex: 0 Int: 200 Wis: 50 Cha: 20 Per: 10 ======================================== ''It seems that she levels up along with how many attribute points I give her'' Able said as he rubbed his chin. He counted the attributes and saw she had 150 more attributes that she was supposed to. He was confused at that so he asked Genesis. "Every 10 Levels an Inhabitant receives a boost in attributes for their dominant attribute. It goes up and down depending on the race. For example, your assistant is a Sheep Beast Kin, so she received 100 extra attributes in Intelligence." She replied. Able wondered about his dominant attribute, but because he was still only Level 1 he stopped thinking about it and decided to name his assistant instead. ''What should her name be? hmmmm...'' 3 Mary When I opened my eyes I saw a man standing before me with blood red hair and scarlet eyes that looked as if they could see through your soul. However I noticed a never before seen warmth hidden in those eyes that made me feel comfort whenever I looked at them. The man before me was my God. He created me. I will serve him forever. I began to tear up as I realized this man is my everything, without him I would be nothing. Is he my father? Do I call him papa, or do I call him God? He looked at me with Warmth in his eyes and the biggest grin his face. "Hello Mary! Nice to meet you, my new assistant." He said as he reached out his hand for a handshake. I hesitated to take his hand but finally conceded when I saw a bit of sadness in his eyes when I didn''t shake it. Mary was so happy, she felt a flutter in her chest and a spring in her step. She wanted to run to him and hug him, but her last bit of consciousness held her back from doing something she might not be supposed to do. I shook his hand and he was happy with this, but a sudden awkward smile appeared on his face. ''Oh no did I do something wrong?'' Tearing up Mary was at a loss not knowing what to do. Suddenly acting as if he jumped on a cats tail Able waved his hands around saying "Oh erm you didn''t have to shake my hand if you didn''t want to". Hearing this Mary began to tear up more because she thought her papa didn''t want to shake hands with her. Able looked as if he was at a loss for what to do "erm don''t cry Mary. What do you want? Tell me what you want so you can stop crying?" he said in a fluster. He had never had to take care of children in his previous life, so he didn''t know what to do. All the information he gained about looking after children was from anime and light novels! Mary looked at him and held in her tears. Sniffling she said "Its okay God I was just wondering if-if-I could call you papa?" She rung her hands together in fear of him saying no. Able let out a sigh of relief "Sure you can Mary. I created you after all. So that does make me your father, doesn''t it" Joy flashed across her face as she said in a weak voice "papa" while Able was smiling. The awkward smile reappeared on his face as he said "erm... Mary can I mofumofu you?" Mary was happy that her father wanted to pet her so she nodded her head. When she gave her consent Able quickly began to feel her fluffy hair and pet her ears. He sat down and put her in his lap as he mofumofu''d her for a while. Mary was filled with joy because she was able to spend some quality time with her father. After finally feeling her hair enough and having the feeling of bliss Able finally nodded in content as he picked Mary up off his lap and set her down. Continuing Able said "Oh and can you tell me what traits are? I noticed you have the [Slumber Trance] trait." Mary shook her head and said sadly "Papa I am only capable of accessing the control rights to your Dominions. I can not control what happens in the Dungeon. You need to get a Subordinate for that, then they will be able to access the Dungeon control rights." "And traits are like abilities, however races are born with them, and they can''t be learned outside of the same species. For example my trait is an area of affect sleeping spell. Traits are gained through Levels the same as everything else." She said with a hint of pride due to her Racial trait. Nodding his head Able now figured out why Subordinates and Assistants were not in the same category. "Well then I think I should make a Subordinate then, so you will have a sibling." He said in joy as he thought of making another cute daughter. When he opened the Subordinates tab and tried to click on Self-Construct he got an error. |Not enough Faith Points| Able was stunned then looked at the required FP for creating your own Subordinates. ==========Dungeon========== ~Subordinate~ ?Select Pre-made (100,000 FP, base cost) ?Gachapon (100,000) ?Self-Construct (1 Million FP, base cost) ========================== He was stunned at the price of the Self-Construct and suddenly felt ecstatic that he got to use it for free. He turned to Mary and asked "What does base cost mean?" "Base cost is the required amount payed to select an option. The price then goes up from there depending on the characteristics of the Subordinate or Assistant. For example a dragon subordinate would cost way more than a goblin subordinate. Attributes and Abilities that come with the Subordinate cost more FP as well. This is the same on both Subordinates and Assistant tabs" Mary answered punctually. Bummed out Able closed his menu and said "Well lets get started on my Dominion then." 4 Shrine "The first thing you should do is build your shrine because without it you can not collect FP. It should have been built during the tutorial mode, but you quit the tutorial mode, so it had not been created yet. It is still free so you don''t need to worry" Mary said teaching him what he should do. "What does the Shrine do?" Able asked confused as to why he would need a shrine. ''I Know i''m supposed to be a god and all but i''m not that narcissistic to want to build a shrine of myself the first time I hear of my status''. "A Shrine lets you collect FP from your inhabitants, without it you are unable to generate any FP." Mary patiently explained to him. Able opened the Faith shop to look for the Shrine. It was under the buildings category in the Dominion tab. =====Dominion===== ~Buildings~ ?Shrine (one per Dominion) ?Town Hall ?Houses ?Hospital ?Farms ?Jail ?Locked¡ý ================ "Are shrines always free in my Dominions or is this also a first time only thing?" Able asked. "Sorry papa, this is the only time that you can get a shrine for free" Mary said with a sad look on her face. "It''s not your fault don''t be sad" he said as he patted her head. This caused her to immediately cheer up and she flapped her ears. Able selected the Shrine and when he picked it he was shown a view of Delphi from the top. It was an eagle view of the whole village. "Where should I place the Shrine Mary?" he asked, as she was more well versed in these things. "Usually you put it in the center of the Dominion, so that when we get attacked it is more well guarded." Mary said after thinking about it for a bit. An awkward smile appeared on Able''s face as he said stiffly "There is no room in the center of the village...Should I just put it off to the side instead?" Suddenly processing what Mary said he exclaimed "Wait what do you mean attacked?! Don''t the other gods only attack the dungeon? Why would someone attack my City?" Able asked in confusion. "It''s all about strategy papa. If your inhabitants are killed you will have no more people to generate faith, then you will have less FP to summon defenses. Or on the flip-side you will waste your FP to summon more inhabitants causing the amount you have left to defend your Dominion to lessen." She explained with a wry smile. "What happens if my Shrine is destroyed in one of these attacks?" He asked in exasperation due to all this new information he was receiving. He realized that playing this God System was not as easy as it first seemed. You needed to defend from all kinds of attacks. "But if the Dungeon Core is destroyed first then the invading God would claim ownership of the Dominion. If your Shrine is destroyed and you have no backups in another Dominion, then you will have your rights as a god revoked." Mary said with a hint of fear in her voice. "So let me get this straight if my Shrine is destroyed and I have none left I am no longer a God?" Mary nodded "And if I want to claim ownership of a Dominion I must destroy the Dungeon Core Before the Shrine?" Mary again nodded. "So what happens if I am loosing a battle in one of my Dominions, can''t I just break my own shrine so that they would not be able to claim ownership and none of us get to rule the Dominion?" Able asked with a sly grin on his face. "No that would not work because Shrine are Indestructible by people of the same Faith" Mary said as she shook her head. "What about building more that one Shrine, so they have a harder time claiming ownership?" Able asked. Mary again shot down his idea by saying only one dungeon core and one shrine are allowed per Dominion. With little will left Able asked "What about hiding the Shrine? If they can''t find it they will be unable to destroy it." "The inhabitants of a Dominion are required to be able to see the Shrine, or else it will not generate any Faith Points." Mary pointed out. Able was like a deflated balloon, all his genius ideas had been destroyed. He had thought that he had come up with a meta strategy that would shake the world causing him to be the number one, but sadly he was wrong. 5 Delphi Village "So since the middle of the Village has no space I will build it off to the side." Able said as he looked at the screen that projected the village. "Papa, you should just move the house that is in the center. It will cost FP, but you would be able to have your shrine in the most ideal spot." Mary advised as she looked at what he was doing. "Mary you are very smart, I would never have thought this system could move buildings" Able said as he ruffled her hair. ''Wait is it actually hair or do I call it wool?'' Able thought to himself in confusion. Mary smiled at the praise her father gave her. Able selected the house that was in the middle of the village and it popped up on the screen blinking blue as it became holographic. When he moved his hand across the screen it also dragged the house along with it. He moved it to a spot where he thought would be good and set it down. ''I hope the owner isn''t too mad that I moved his house.'' Able thought as he personally would be mad if he went to where his house used to be and found it missing. |50 FP required to complete this Action| The voice said inside his head. He accepted the cost and placed the house down. Once he accepted the cost on the screen he saw the House have white light surround it like when he was transported and the spot where he selected to drop it also had white light surrounding it, then it moved to the designated spot. The whole thing took only two seconds and it was not a big ordeal. -- The sun was setting and the day was over. "Finally I get to go home and eat that chicken I bought yesterday!" John said with a spring in his step. He was an ordinary farmer and he saved up his money, so that he could buy some good food from one of the richer households. When he got to the center of the Village where his house was he was not paying attention, as he was lost in his thoughts salivating over his chicken, and ran right into a Shrine. John rubbed his head in pain as he looked up at the Shrine. ''When did this get here?'' He wondered as he went around it to get to his house. When he went to the other side of the Shrine and saw his house wasn''t there He stopped and turned around. "I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere" He then left and tried to find out where he got lost at. ''This is my third time this month I lost my house'' He mumbled to himself ''If this keeps up. Pretty soon people will start to think i''m stupid.'' He sighed as he went to look for his house. When he couldn''t find his house after an hour of looking he eventually gave up and went to ask the village chief for help. The chief was about to send someone to walk him to his house (Thinking he go lost again) when someone burst into the chief''s house panting. "Shut the hell up! What do you mean his house is on the East side of the village! John''s house is dead center in the middle of the village! It''s not like it just stood up and walked over there!" He yelled in anger thinking the villager was pulling his leg. "Honest, chief. His house really is on the East side of the village. I even went to check where his house used to be and now there is a shrine placed there instead." The villager explained in a hurried tone. Hearing the word Shrine the village chief''s Jaw dropped as excitement began to fill his eyes. "A GOD! We finally have a God!" He shouted in happiness. Most rural villagers did not know about Gods, but since the Village Chief traveled when he was younger he was more informed than the other villagers. Tears began to flow out of his eyes as he said "We will finally move up in the world. No longer will we be just a small village. We will eventually grow into a vast empire!" As ambition began filling him he turned to the villager and said "Lets go see the shrine!". When they arrived at the Shrine there was already a crowd surrounding the Shrine as they whispered to each other trying to guess how it got here. When they were viewing it though They felt a natural dominating power emanating from it causing them to want to kneel in worship. The Chief look towards the Shrine and immediately knelt on the floor and kowtowed before it. He turned to the Villagers and said "This is our new God, we will now become his believers. If we do, then our lives would improve for the better. So Kowtow before him, we don''t want to disrespect him." The Villagers all knelt on the floor and kowtowed to the Shrine and as this happened at the same time Able heard in his head. |Converted 100 Believers| |Dominion Conquered| Able sat there in wonder at the sight. "Do they have to do this every time I capture a new Dominion?" he asked Mary. She shook her head and said "This is only for Dominions that are conquered for the first time. If you capture a Dominion ruled by another God, the System automatically converts all the inhabitants." 6 A Grand Entrance....Or no "How do I leave this white space?" He asked Mary, as he wanted to make an appearance before his believers. "Just will it, and it will happen, Think of any place in your Dominion you want to exit to, and you will appear there." She said as she watched the people kowtowing before his shrine. She was happy that her father was looked up to. Able tried it out and saw himself appear in the shrine. There was no white light this time, he just moved from one place to another. ''Maybe this way I can go incognito, a white light would attract a lot of attention. Wait wouldn''t the villagers have seen the white light from me moving the house? Maybe they are unable to see it, I will ask Mary when I get back.'' He thought to himself as he was walking out of the Shrine. When he stepped out of the Shrine he prepared to relish in the gasps and awe of the villagers and closed his eyes looking towards the sky trying to appear profound. After one minute of no sounds coming from the villagers Able figured they were shocked into silence and was very content nodding to himself at his great performance. When he opened his eyes to look at his believers he saw all of them were still kowtowing and not one had even noticed his presence. Able was about to spit blood! He was dismayed, his grand entrance was only seen by Mary in the God space, and no one else. With a stiff smile on his face Able cleared his throat. The villagers too busy trying to prove their Faith to their god didn''t hear him at all. ''How ironic it is, that they ignore their god, so they can kowtow to him!'' Able thought in Dismay. His self confidence was crushed. It took him some time to regather his confidence before he cleared his throat loudly this time, so that they all could hear it. With an irritated look on his face the Village chief looked up to see who was disrupting their showing of Faith and said "Who the hell is blaspheming our god?!?". When he looked to the Culprit and saw the person looked identical to the portrait of their God inside the shrine he nearly crapped his pants. "Ahh I-I''m-I''m Sorry God! I didn''t know it was you" The Village chief was unable to control his stuttering. Hearing his words all the villagers stopped Kowtowing and looked up towards the commotion. Even though he was mildly annoyed, Able waved it off like it was no big deal. Seeing as he was now the center stage he prepared himself for his speech. "I am The God of Thrill and Adventure. I come here today to strengthen you hopes and uplift your dreams. I will provide you the resources and strength to live out your dreams and create my vision. "The First thing we must do is create more farmland, so that we can have more inhabitants. We will also need to build walls to prevent any incoming attacks. You all must rest well today, for tomorrow you will toil hard. This empire will be ours! It will be made from our own blood. Our own sweat! And our own tears!" He said as even he was getting excited over his speech. He knows they were not in a war, and had no enemies, but he felt that these words will still get their blood pumping. When he saw the fervor in the villagers eyes he thought his speech was good enough. When he finished talking all the villagers cheered at the vision that their God provided. They were no longer going to be wastrel waiting for someone stronger to come wipe them out. They will grow into a Dominion to be feared across the WORLD! Seeing as how the villagers were cheering Able decided to take his leave and teleported back into the God Space. When the villagers saw him do some kind of magic that they had never even seen before they cheered even louder thinking of how powerful their god was. The villagers were the happiest they have been in years. They started a party and had a big bonfire going with a pig roasting over it. They were singing as they danced around the fire with smiles of joy on all their faces. -- In his God Space Able let out a sight of relief. He though he did good and reinforced the villagers belief that their god was powerful. As he was deep in thought he felt someone hug him from behind. He turned around and patted Mary''s head and said "Lets sleep, tomorrow we have a lot of work to do." He opened the shop and bought a bed, then picked up Mary and put her on the bed. 7 General Knowledge When Able woke up he already saw the Village Chief waiting outside the Shrine. He looked at through the screen and saw the Villagers plowing fields, but because some of them didn''t have any tools they were only able to help a little bit. ''I should summon some tools for them huh, that way all of them could pitch in.'' Able thought as he saw what was going on. Mary was still sleeping on the bed and Able didn''t want to wake her up, so he got off quietly and checked his status. ====================================== Name: Able Age: 22 Race: Arch God Title: God of Thrill and Adventure Level: 1 Dominions: Delphi Village (Inhabitants: 100) Faith: 5330 (Generate: 100 Per Day) Current Relations: None Abilities: None Assistants: 1 Subordinates: 0 Strength: 10 Defense: 10 Constitution: 10 Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10 Perception: 10 ======================================== Looking at the 500 increase in FP Able was confused at how he got that much in one day. Did something happen over night? An achievement? He was confused and decided to ask Mary later. He looked at his Faith and noticed that because he now had a Shrine he was generating Faith. He was only generating 100 Faith per Day so he assumed that all the Villagers were level 1. Looking back at the Villagers that were not able to help process the fields much he opened the faith shop and went to the tools tab to see if he could buy some for them to use. ====Faith Shop==== ~Tools~ ?Wooden Hoe (5 FP) ?Wooden Shovel (5 FP) ?Wooden Pickaxe (10 FP) ?Wooden Axe (10 FP) ?Locked¡ý ============== The only tools he was able to purchase right now were all wooden and would not be that useful at all, but since he had no other choice he decided to buy 20 hoes 5 shovels and 5 axes. He didn''t buy pickaxes, because he didn''t know if there was anything to mine nearby, so he decided to ask the Village Chief. He left the God Space, so he could give the tools to the Village Chief and have him distribute them. He walked out of the Shrine to talk to the Village Chief, but when the Chief saw him he immediately knelt on the floor. Able was dismayed and said "You may rise" he was not used to this kind of treatment. He pulled the tools out of his God Space causing the Chief''s eyes to widen in surprise, because from his point of view they were pulled out of the air. Handing the Chief the tools Able asked if he could come back after, so that he could ask him some questions. The Village Chief nodded and hurriedly ran to go call someone to deliver the tools, so he wouldn''t make his god wait. "Lets go to your house" Able said as he beckoned him to show the way. "It would be my pleasure God." He said as he began leading to way towards his house with sweat on his brow. When they arrived at his house Able sat down at the table which scared the daylights out of the Chief and it took a while for Able to calm him down before they could talk. The Chief was still fidgeting while sitting across from Able, because he saw it as disrespectful to sit at the same table as his god. Able asked him to give him an overview of the where he was, what status this village had, how the world worked, what was the currency, and all the other general knowledge required to grow his Dominion into a powerhouse. After asking all the questions what he got out of the village chief was this. They were currently in the Easter part of a Continent Called Aslan. The whole world was called Gaia which Able already knew thanks to the voice that told him when he was transporting. The Village was not under a Dominion until Able came. The nearest other Dominion was one ruled by a Goblin and his title was the Goblin God of Greed. His Dominion was called Lucrox and was mainly inhabited by goblins. The reason that the God didn''t try and take over their village was because it was very poor and the Goblin God of Greed thought there was no money in it, so it was a waste of time. This god was also fairly new, and has only been a god for three months. The nearest Human settlement was a city called Zalfari, and was sieged constantly by Lucrox, and had formed a deep hatred for them. There was also several other tribes of monsters around, but nothing as big as Lucrox. The Currency used in this word was each coin was a 100 derivation of the next biggest coin. It went from Copper ¡ú Silver ¡ú Gold ¡ú White Gold ¡ú Platinum. He was also told that Dominions were divided into ranks and a Dominion that was of a Higher Tier could not attack a Lower tier one or the God System would punish them. However, a lower Tier Dominion could attack a higher tier one, and if the higher Tiered dominion won then there would be no punishment. The ranks of Dominion Were 1 being the Lowest and 100 being the highest. The Tiers were dived into ten, with Tier one being from Rank 1-10 and Tier 10 being Rank 91-100. The Village Chief did not know about the other powers besides Lucrox, so he could not provide more in depth detail than that. The last question Able asked was if there was somewhere they could mine nearby. Since their Village was near a mountain, Able assumed they could mine there. The Village Chief explained that their town used to mine in the mountain, but recently and Orc Tribe settled down in the middle of their path to the mine, so they couldn''t get there safely. When the villagers tried to go around the Orcs they were still caught in the end and killed by the Orcs, so it was not safe. Able nodded as he decided to kill the Orc Tribe. He thanked the chief as he left the Chiefs house Telling him to keep up with the farm progress. He also bought some Corn seeds from the Faith Shop under the Food tab at a price of 10 FP per ounce of seeds and got 100 FP worth before he gave it to the Chief. 8 Concerns When entered the space Mary was already awake and waiting for him to come back. "Good morning Mary" Able said as he began to pet her hair. Mary smiled in bliss and felt a feeling of loss when Able stopped petting her. "Mary I was wondering, how come yesterday the villagers didn''t notice me moving the house? Shouldn''t they have noticed the white light?" Able asked as he went to sit on the bed. Mary climbed up onto the bed and sat on his lap as she answered "The white light that you see is actually a cloaking system that prevents Inhabitants from seeing what is going on. Only other Gods are able to see the white light". Able nodded his head as that answer made sense. He then began to tell her about his concerns for his Dominion. He first Concern was Lacrox, which was a Dominion that was ruled by a greedy God. The only reason they didn''t attack before, was because Delphi was just a poor Village. However, now that Able will make this into a Dominion what God wouldn''t want to take control over it? "Yes I see the problem, we still have a one month protection on our Dominion though, so he can''t attack us just yet. We need to improve our Dominion as fast as possible, or we will be in trouble" Mary said as she thought about the potential problems they could face. "The Goblin God of Greed would most definitely attack our Dungeon once he finds out this is a Dominion, so as long as we don''t alert him we could have more time." Mary said. Able voiced his agreement and said "I think I should Summon some more work force, and then build a wall to protect our Dominion." He said as he looked at the screen. "You need to make sure that your Dominion has enough food and housing for its inhabitants, so when you summon more people, you also need to summon houses." Mary explained to him so that he would not cause disaster. Taking into account her advice Able check his balance before he opened the Faith shop then spent 800 FP on houses making 8 new houses. Each house could only hold a single family of four. Another 200 FP was used on making a wall that surrounded the village. This left him with only 4055 FP. ====================================== Name: Able Age: 22 Race: Arch God Title: God of Thrill and Adventure Level: 1 Dominions: Delphi Village (Inhabitants: 100) Faith: 4055 (Gain 100 Per Day) Current Relations: None Abilities: None Assistants: 1 Subordinates: 0 Strength: 10 Defense: 10 Constitution: 10 Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10 Perception: 10 ======================================== He then went to summon Inhabitants and saw under under the Inhabitants tab it had a small list of Inhabitants with the rest locked unlike the Self-Creation option under the assistants tab. ====Dominion==== ~Inhabitants~ ?Humans (25 FP, base cost) ?Halfling (20 FP, base cost) ?Goblins (15 FP, base cost) ?Gnomes (250 FP, base cost) ?Dwarves (250 FP, base cost) ?¡ýLocked =============== Looking at the list of Inhabitants Able was shocked at how much more Gnomes and Dwarves costed. ''Just because Gnomes are good at tinkering and Dwarves are good blacksmiths makes their base cost 10 times more than a human!'' Seeing this made Able wonder just how expensive Dragons, or Titans would be. Able wanted to save 3500 to use on the dungeon so he had 555 FP to work with for summoning Inhabitants. That immediately got rid of Dwarves and Gnomes because they both took half of his FP right from the start. After a while of contemplation Able decided to summon 16 humans, 7 halfling, and 1 goblin. This left him with exactly 3500 FP to use for the creation of his dungeon. After he summoned these Inhabitants he called over the Village Chief and had them begin helping plow the fields. Since the Halflings were not good at working he decided to have them start training by hunting monsters in the Mountain not far from the village. He wanted to halflings to be scouts for him and tell him if there was any movements from the Orc tribe that was ruling over there. They were all level one, so he told them to only hunt rabbits and goblins if they outnumber them. If they see any other monsters, then they should run. He let the goblin be a sentry for the village because he didn''t think a goblin would be able to help plow fields. 9 Dungeon Improvemen With 3500 FP to use on his dungeon he turned to Mary and said "Where is my Dungeon anyways?" as he had not yet seen it. Mary went to the map and pointed to a little hill that came off the ground. "The entrance is inside this hill". The hill was outside the village, and was about a mile away, but was still in walking distance. When Able went to look around the hill he indeed saw a hole on the side of it. He moved his map and selected the Dungeon and a hologram of it appeared before him floating in mid air. All his dungeon was so far, was the entrance and a single room. Embedded into the floor of the room was a Dungeon Core. The Dungeon Core was a spherical object that was orange and red, like the sun, but pulsed with life every so often like a beating heart. It was in the middle of the room making it the center of attention. Not that there was anything else interesting in the Dungeon. Able teleported out of his space with Mary before he walked up to the core and tried to pull it out of the ground, but struggled until his arms began to hurt. "Mary how am I supposed to move the Dungeon Core?" "Papa that isn''t going to work, you move it the same way you move houses" she said as she giggled at Able''s nonsense. It wasn''t really Able''s fault though because the Dungeon Core looked small enough to pick up. Able went back to the God Space, and opened the Dungeon tab in the Faith Shop. ====Dungeon==== ?Monsters ?Traps ?Rooms ?Subordinates ?Locked¡ý ============== The First thing he did was select rooms and see what type of room he should get first. ===Dungeon=== ~Rooms~ ?Empty room (10x10) (500 FP for every 100 square meters) ?Boss room ?Throne Room ?Locked¡ý ============ Looking at the Rooms Able bought two 100 square meter rooms and one room that was 200 square meters. This left him with 1500 FP to use on monsters and traps to defend the dungeon. Looking at his dwindling FP Able was dismayed. He turned to Mary and asked "Is there a way to get more FP besides waiting for it to generate every day?" He now could only generate 150 FP per day because of the new inhabitants he summoned, and this was no where near enough. "You can get FP in three ways: -By Generating Faith from your followers (The higher The Level the more points) -By Creating a miracle, or what your followers see as one (You did this earlier by entering the God Space in front of them and made 500 FP)" Hearing this Able remembered the 500 FP he got overnight, but asking Mary about it slipped his mind and he forgot about it. "The intruder doesn''t have to be a minion of another god? It could be those Orcs on the mountain?" Able said as a sly grin emerged on his face. Mary nodded her head "That is allowed". Able was happy that he could get more FP in an easy way, but immediately became downcast when he realized his believers were not powerful enough to kill any of them. Able pinned his hope on the Halfling Squad wishing them well in their hunting. He opened the monster tab and looked at what he could summon. ===Dungeon=== ~Monsters~ ?Goblins (10 FP, Base Cost) ?Gnolls (25 FP, Base Cost) ?Kobolds (20 FP, Base Cost) ?Orcs (50 FP, Base Cost) ?Skeletons (5 FP, Base Cost) ?Golems (100 FP, Base Cost) ?Locked¡ý ============ He immediately decided to buy three golems because they were the most expensive and had very tough defense. Physical attacks do less damage to them, and most low level adventurers do not have magical attacks. He then bought one hundred skeletons and placed them in the biggest room. Hoards are very hard to deal with he thought, even if they are weak. Death by a thousand cuts! He then spent the rest of his money on Gnolls and Orcs and placed them in the original room and two side rooms. There is a cap on the amount of monsters allowed in a certain room depending on its size, so that''s why there was multiple types of rooms you could buy. After he finished making his dungeon have a little defense he thought of an idea and asked Mary if he could use his Dungeon monsters to defend his Dominion. "Regular Dungeon Monsters are Unable to exit the Dungeon, but if they are a Dungeon Room Boss, or a Subordinate, then they are allowed to leave. Keep in mind that if you take out these high level Monsters its will be easier to capture the Dungeon." Mary informed him. 10 To the Mountains Able teleported as far as he could in the direction of the mountains. The mountains was about a hour and a half walk away from where he teleported to. He could only teleport inside his Dominions, due to this he had the minor inconvenience of walking the rest of the way. He was fairly Happy though because he got to travel with Mary. He was like a real adventurer. Of course he didn''t bring a backpack with supplies, because he could just go back to the village to get some if he needed. He had a sword at his waist and that was all. He was humming a tune as he casually walked along with Mary following him. Able turned to look at Mary who was carrying a bag, and asked "Hey Mary why do you need a bag? What are you carrying?". "I am carrying supplies because you are unable to access the Faith shop, or go into your space while you are outside of your Dominion." She explained while walking across a river careful of her step. Able stopped walking and tried to open the menu but received an error instead. |Privilege Restricted| Able said "Hey Genesis will I eventually be able to use my privilege''s when I am outside of my Dominion?" probing to see if this function still worked. She promptly responded with "You do not have enough FP for the answer to that question". Able sighed in relief realizing he still had his AI with unlimited knowledge with him at all times, even if he had to pay for the information. -- An hour Later they arrived at the foot of the mountains which was a forest, with animal calls coming out from within. The grassland transitioned to a forest and led into the Mountains where the Orcs Lived. "How do we find the Halflings?" Able asked forgetting this part on the way here. He had not even warned the halflings they were coming on the way here. "Assistants are able to track all Inhabitants of a Dominion, and Subordinates have the same power as well. Speaking of tracking them, the halflings are heading over here as we speak." Mary said as she was being watchful of their surroundings. They continued on in the forest and Able began killing stuff he saw so he could Level up and get more Privileges. "Hey Mary, do I level up my God Level by killing monsters?" He asked because he didn''t level up even after killing three rabbits. Mary shook her head as she explained "No you have to pay FP to level up. Just think the command |Level Up| and it will tell you how much FP are required to level up. However this is only for the first 10 Levels after that you can only level up by Conquering more Dominions". Able said the Command and received a reply saying |Not Enough FP| |1000 FP Required| Sighing Able continued on the trail as he headed deeper into the mountains. Mary followed him along oblivious to his suffering. After they traveled deeper into the mountain for about twenty more minutes the halflings emerged from the bushes on the side of the trial. All of their weapons had blood on them and a few of them even had minor injuries. "Greetings God" They all said as they knelt down. "You may rise" Able said in a dignified tone. "Give me your report". "Yes Sir" One of the halflings stepped forward, which Able assumed they appointed as their leader. "The Orc Tribe is in between those two peaks over there" he said as he pointed to some mountains that you could barely see over the top of the trees. "And all of us have been hunting monsters in this forest and are glad to report four of us are Level 3 two of us are Level 2 and I am Level 4." He said with a hint of pride in his voice. "Hmm, you did well, lead us to the Orc Tribe. I want to Survey it myself and see if it will be a problem for us to attack it." Able said as he was thinking of a plan. "Sir, If I may." the halfling said not knowing what would come of it. Able nodded his consent and let the halfling speak. "Sir, I Believe that we would not be able to take out the Orc Tribe in a frontal fight. There is over forty Orcs living in that Tribe and I think the Orc Chief is at least Level 8." He explained as he recalled his scouting of the Tribe. "Hmmm, I would still like to see the Tribe, to find out if we can use any sneaky tactics to wipe them out." Able said as he contemplated. 11 Scouting the Orc Tribe Able began following the halflings as they walked through the mountains. There was no trail to go on, so they had to push through bushes, and walk through grass. Able turned to make sure that Mary could keep up, but when he saw that she was right on his tail he remembered she was Level 16 and was in way better condition than he was. While thinking about her Level he realized he never asked about what the Level cap is and he turned to Mary and asked her about it. "I''m not sure what the Max Level is papa, I was not born with any information on that" She said with a disappointed look on her face. Able comforted her as they kept walking towards the Orc Tribe. On the way there they saw several goblins, but they ran away scared when they saw the size of the group. Goblins are monsters who cower in front of the strong and terrorize the weak. The halflings led them in a round-a-bout fashion towards the Orc Tribe because they were only going to survey it, and not attack. They decided beforehand to climb up the mountain somewhat so they can view it from above. It took them several hours to get to the mountain and the sun was beginning to set, so they set up camp for the night. Able was glad that Mary has good foresight and packed a sleeping bag and a tent. Of course she only packed one of each because she assumed she would be sharing with her papa, and Able was fine with that. They rested for the night, while the halflings took shifts taking watch. They woke up early the next morning with no incidents happening through the night and again began walking towards the mountain. They arrived at a good spot fairly soon, because they were almost halfway up the mountain when they rested the night before. When Able looked down the Mountain he could see the Orcs walking about in their tents made of animal hide. There was about forty Orc with a few of them having metal swords they looted from adventurers, however, most of them only had wooden clubs. The Tribe had only a few lookouts with most of the Tribe being in the hunting party that would leave every day to go gather food. The hunting party was about twenty five Orcs, and there were only about seven Orcs left in the tribe that could fight well including the Orc Chieftain. Of course, the female Orcs could fight as well, because they are Orcs, but not as good as the Orcs from the hunting party. The Chieftain was the biggest Orc of the bunch and always had two Orcs who followed him around who the leader halfling guessed were around Level 5. Able surveyed the terrain to see if he could grasp any advantages from it, but had to admit the Orcs knew how to pick a base. Able began to formulate a plan of attack on the Orc Tribe, and knew his only chance was to attack when the hunting party left for the day, so they would have to stay at least one more night, if not more. It all depended on how fast they could carry out his plans. Able called over the halflings and told them his plan and they nodded agreeing that this plan might work. After Able was done instructing them they went into the mountain to gather what they needed to accomplish it. Able sat down where he was because he was unable to help much being only Level 1, and Mary only wanted to stay with her papa and protect him. "These Orcs are not to be taken lightly, if this plan fails some of us could die" Able said as he looked at the robust Orcs down the mountain. Mary agreed "They are a very vicious race, and will kill anyone they see as a potential threat. They are a war loving race, so they will kill you even if you are not a threat". She looked down at the Orcs with a bit of disgust evident in her voice. "Yeah, but their love of war is also one of their greatest benefits. They will never back down from a fight even if they know they will loose, so they are perfect for defending a dungeon." He said as he was thinking of his Dominion. Eventually their conversation began to die out and they just sat there in silence enjoying each others company. After an unknown amount of time the halflings came back with some supplies saying that they had completed their instructions. 12 Starting the Mission Able was sitting on the mountain looking at the Orc camp below him. He turned to Mary and asked "Are you ready?". He had a worried look on his face. Mary was after all the cornerstone of his plan and she would be in the most danger. It Revolved around her, and if she messed up her life could be in danger. She was Level 16, but she had no abilities, and only had 40 strength, so she would not be able to survive being surrounded by a group of Orcs. Mary nodded and gripped her fist as she mentally prepared herself. "Make sure to run at the first sign of Danger". He warned her with worry leaking out of his voice. "Don''t worry papa, I will complete my mission". Able nodded and said "Just remember the mission is not as important as your life". They sunk into silence and watched to Orc Camp down the mountain. The Orcs were just getting up for the day and the hunting party was about ready to leave. When the Orc hunting party finally left the camp Able signaled the halflings, and they walked over towards him. He once again told them the plan to make sure they wouldn''t forget then said "Alright lets do this quick and easy, and once we are done I will give all of you guys a reward". This caused the halflings and Mary to be even more eager to complete their missions. Able sent them off, and the halflings, bowed before leaving. Mary hugged Able and trotted off down the mountain alongside them. Able sat on this cliff unable to help because he had terrible attributes, and no abilities. He decided to Level up as fast as he can once this was over, so that he wont have to rely on other people wiping out his enemies for him. ---Mary Pov ''Today was my first mission that I received from papa. I want to make sure I do it right, not just because I get a reward, but because following papa''s orders is one of my greatest joys in life.'' ''I wonder what reward I can get from papa.'' ''I don''t want a big reward, just a hug is fine, or maybe even a ki-ki-kiss! No no no no, that is just too embarrassing.'' She covered her face with her hands as her cheeks flushed red. The image of her papa kissing her turned her whole face red. Steam was practically coming out of her face. ''I will just ask for a hug instead'' Thinking of asking for a kiss was too much for her and she decided to forfeit before she even asked. Realizing she stopped walking because she was imagining her reward Mary forced herself to calm down before she again started walking towards the Orc camp. After all she can''t receive her reward if she doesn''t even complete her mission. She arrived in front of the Orc Camp a few minutes later and began the plan. ---Halfling Leader Pov ''God said that we would receive a reward for completing this mission. If we get to ask anything of him I hope he can name me and my brothers. I hope he can also give a name to our group because our current name is so shameful.'' He thought as he sighed. ''My God is so generous, what other God would reward their minions for listening to his commands?'' The generosity of his God won his heart even though he couldn''t betray his God even if he wanted to. ''It is so difficult not having names during missions that you wouldn''t understand. I have stuck to calling my brothers by number instead, but I don''t want to have a serial number as a name.'' The halfling leader walked to the bottom of the mountain and used hand signals to tell the other halflings to head of into their spots, and four of them left in groups of twos, while the remaining two stayed with him. The halfling leader prepared himself and crouched down in a bush waiting for the mission to start. --- Able was sitting on the mountain with an aura of self-mockery surrounding him. He was so useless even though he was a God. ''What kind of God am I? I don''t even have and divine powers like I am supposed to.'' he sighed. He was drawing on the floor in the dirt waiting for the plan to start. He did not have to use a signal or everything, because that was Mary''s job. So all he had to do was wait until it started, then he could watch how it played out. 13 Eliminating the Orcs 1 Hearing Mary''s scream Able immediately shot up from the rock he was sitting on and went towards the edge of the mountain and looked down to see what was going on. Her scream was the signal to start the mission, so he was not worried. He just wanted to rush over to the edge of the mountain, so he would not miss anything that is going on. Mary screamed to attract the Orc towards her. Hearing the scream the Orcs in the camp began to rustle about. The Chief also exited his tent to see what the commotion was about. He began yelling in the Orc language and gestured his hands causing eight Orcs to grab their weapons and head out of the camp. Hearing the scream they assumed that whatever it was had already been wounded, so a lot of strength was not needed, hence they only sent eight Orcs to investigate. Able cursed under his breath when he saw this because the Chief did not leave and neither did the two level five Orcs. He was hoping to get one, or all three of them in their trap, but sadly it didn''t work. ''Looks like this might be a tough fight'' Able speculated as he saw the happenings in the Orc camp. The Chief re-entered his tent and his two personal guards stood in front of it. The Orc Chief did not care about the scream in the forest, because there are constantly people who die in the forest. The eight Orcs were not alert to their surroundings as they headed in the direction of the scream. In their opinion they had no reason to be alert there was eight of them going to capture an injured opponent, so why be careful? The Lead orc grunted and said some words in Orcish and the other Orcs spread and and began to comb the forest for their target. They did not even pull out their weapons and walked through the forest making tons of noise. At this part of the mountain they had no natural predators either, so they had no need to fear. On the other side of the mountain though there were stronger monsters than them, that could kill Orcs easily. As the Orcs were searching through the forest one of them yelled and the others immediately went towards the commotion. They arrived to see a little sheep kin girl who was sitting on a rock crying. The Orcs looked at each other and licked their lips with lust in their eyes. Two of the Orcs immediately charged at her, but the lead Orc followed after and slammed one out of the way and whacked the other one on the head with its club. The Orc roared and slammed on its chest as it challenged the other Orcs for dibs on the girl. The other Orcs had a glint in their eye, but still conceded to the lead Orc as they knew they couldn''t beat him. They would still get a turn anyways, so why get hurt over the first turn. The Orc grinned at his show of dominance, then turned around and reached his hand out trying to grab the little girl. --- She let out a loud scream trying to attract the Orc in the Camp over to her position. She knew this was dangerous because she could also alert the hunting party, but she still wanted to do it because her papa wished the Orcs dead. She also began to fake cry, which was also part of the plan to make the Orcs less alert when facing her. Thinking of crying in front of Orcs did not make her feel well, but she needed to do it for the mission, so she complied. She heard the Orc roars in the distance, and knew they were coming to find her. To be honest she was a little nervous, but she still kept her calm. She heard the rustling of the bushes and saw an Orc appear in the clearing before her. ''Orcs were one of the grossest monsters that exist'' Mary thought as she looked at its huge tusks protruding from its lower jaw and its nose that was kind of pushed into its face. The green skin didn''t bother her, because there were a lot of monsters that had green skin. Thinking about her disgust for Orcs she realized it probably originated from the Orc''s love of war and slaughter. She knew killing was necessary to grow your kingdom, and protect yourself, but if you kill because you like it? She thought you were disgusting. When the Orc saw her sitting on the rock crying he grinned as he yelled in Orcish calling the other Orcs over towards her. When they arrived they all saw her and didn''t conceal the lust in their eyes. When she saw the look in their eyes she wanted to throw up. ''No one but papa can look at me like that'' She thought as rage began to build up inside her. She made a promise to herself that none of these Orcs would leave alive, not that they were going to in the first place. The Orcs began fighting over who got to use her first, and when one of them finally won he wore a grin on his face. He reached out his hand and prepared to grab her. 14 Eliminating the Orcs 2 The Orc grinned in triumph as he reached out his hand to grasp Mary. The lust in his eyes was evident and was enough to scare any regular child, however it did not scare Mary, it only made her feel disgust. Watching the Orc try and grasp her Mary figured it was time to start their plan and activated her [Slumber Trace]. As she activated her ability she began to sing a soothing melody. It evoked a mental image of a serene place where water trickled in a river stream. Birds chirped as the flew across the sky playing with each other as they twirled in the air. The place was full of harmony and peace, causing a person to feel like taking a nap in the grass under the bright blue sky. The Orcs immediately stopped moving when she began singing. They confused looks on their faces as the saw her sing, but slowly their eyelids began to droop one by one. When one of the Orcs finally fell asleep, he slumped to the floor and little sheep could be seen jumping around his head in the air signifying he was put to sleep by [Slumber Trance]. The Orcs could not resist the drowsiness and they all slowly began to fall asleep. When the last Orc slumped to the floor Mary finally stopped singing, and panted in exhaustion. She used a lot of mental energy to use her trait that long. The halflings that were hiding in the forest slowly emerged from the trees as they began walking around the sleeping Orcs and slitting their throats. The halflings were not affected by [Slumber Trance] because they had stuffed insulation into their ears to block the sound. After they killed all the Orcs silently they looted the corpses and took their weapons and money. Right now they were very poor and could use all the money they could find. Mary nodded, then grabbed a sword from one of the halflings and began walking towards the Orc camp. Now they were going to set an ambush at the exit of the mountain pass. When the Orcs noticed their scouting party has not yet come back they will most likely send out more Orcs to see what the problem is. They arrived outside the mountain pass and set up at both sides of the pass and waited for their prey to walk into the trap. This whole time Able was watching the happenings of their mission and was amazed at the efficiency of Mary''s talent. It put eight full grown Orcs to sleep in fifteen seconds, what kind of broken ability was this? He realized they all had to be in its area of affect to work, but it still was a very useful ability. The only downside was that it added an effect of sheep that jumped around the persons head to signify they were put to sleep by her ability. This limited the uses of her ability by a little bit, but was only significant enough to make it a small demerit. - Mary looked up at the sky and saw it that it was past noon and knew the hunting party would be heading back soon, so she ordered the halflings to come with her and attack the camp before the hunting party came back. The halflings complied and they began sneaking into the camp to try and take out as many Orcs as possible before they alerted the who camp. There should only be about seven Orcs left in the camp at the moment, so the Orcs had a lot of holes in their defense. It was still mid-day and they had only a little bit of places to hide without the darkness helping them, so they knew they would be found out soon. And they were right, because once they snuck into the camp and killed only two Orcs they were spotted. An Orc spotted them and was jumping while shouting as it reached for its weapon. The Chief exited is tent as it had a weapon in hand and its two guards also drew their weapons. Before the Chief could come to assist the lone Orc the halflings already killed it leaving only four Orcs left in the entire camp. The Orc Chief roared in fury as it saw its brethren killed and slammed its sword into its shield to express its anger. It charged towards the halflings with its two guards on its tail. Engaging in battle the halflings were immediately on the loosing side, and were being pushed back even though they outnumbered the Orcs. Seeing the Orc Chief man-handling the halflings Mary moved in to switch with them and began to solo the Orc Chief while the halflings split up in groups of three to fight the two elite guardsmen. The last halfling was the leader halfling who was fighting against the fourth Orc by himself and was actually winning the fight. 15 Eliminating the Orcs 3 Mary was struggling to deal with the Orc Chief as their swords constantly clashed reverberating the air around them. Mary was having trouble keeping up with the Orc''s strength and speed. Almost all her stat points were in Intelligence. Maybe if they were having a spelling bee Mary could decimate her opponent, but she did not have much fighting strength. Still, she was the best choice to fight against the Orc Chief because she was two times his level. She just had to hold on long enough for the halflings to kill their opponents, and then they could overwhelm the Orc Chieftain with numbers. Mary already had a few cuts on her body, and she had yet to injure the Orc Chief. The halfling leader however was doing much better in his fight, and was winning against his opponent. He had already chopped off one of the Orcs arms, and it was only a matter of time before he killed the Orc. They needed to finish this fast, or they would get caught by the returning hunting party, so they were fighting with all their might. The rest of the halflings were ganging up on the two elite guardsmen and were in a stalemate with no clear winner on each side. The Orcs however knew that once the halfling leader killed the other Orc the tides would change into the halflings'' favor, so they fought with an unending ferocity. --- Able was sitting on the mountain watching the fight between his underlings, and had a smile on his face when he saw they would eventually win the battle. As he was watching the fight in the corner of his eye he caught some movement that attracted his attention. Looking over the smile dropped off his face, the hunting party was on its way back. The Orc hunting party were carrying deer and were chatting and laughing as they slowly strolled back towards their encampment oblivious to the danger their Chief was in right now. Able was not happy with this though, because even with their slow movement they would still make it back to the camp in fifteen minutes, and that was not enough time for his underlings to kill the Orc Chief. Able stood up and shouted down the mountain to warn Mary and the halflings before he set off to go try and do something to help his underlings. --- Mary was fighting the Orc Chief and got slashed in the ribs when the Orc Chief parried her sword blow and she yelped in pain. She decided that after this fight she would ask her papa for double the reward as she held in her tears of pain. While she was fighting the Orc Chief she heard Able yell from the top of the mountain warning of the incoming hunting party. Mary''s face immediately paled and she lost focus of her fight causing the Orc Chief to again slash at her. The pain from her wound caused her to awake from her trance, as she again began fighting against the Orc Chieftain. The halflings would take turn and would attack from two different angles at once causing the Orc to be unable to block both at the same time receiving many injuries. His movements became more sluggish as his wounds slowed him down. The Orc knew it was going to die, so it fought in a frenzy hoping to save as much time as possible for its brothers. Ten minutes passed of their encirclement of the elite guardsmen Orc before he finally had his heart pierced by the halfling leader. The Orc looked down at his chest and laughed in joy before saying in Orcish "That was a damn good fight" before collapsing to the floor dead. And it was the best fight the Orc ever had in his life! Fighting with their lives on the line was an Orc''s greatest joy. Not knowing what the Orc told them the halflings all swarmed the last elite guardsmen Orc and besieged him from all sides because they had little time to spare, but sadly they were too late as they heard the marching of the hunting party coming from outside the mountain pass. The hunting party entered the mountain pass and saw their camp had been destroyed with their brethren lying dead on the floor, filling them with rage. They roared as they dropped their prey and unsheathed their weapons. They charged towards Mary and the halflings hoping to encircle and kill them in the fastest time possible. The Orcs wanted nothing more than to tear them into a thousand pieces. 16 Eliminating the Orcs 4 The Orcs roared as they charged towards Mary and the halflings. They wanted nothing more than to tear them limb from limb and drink their blood. Rumbling filled the mountain pass as the Orc''s charged towards the group of intruders. The charging Orcs stopped at the sound of the rumbling and turned towards the mountains to see what was going on. They looked up to see a rock slide coming down the hill straight at them. Chaos ensued in the hunting party, and they all began to push and shove each other as they tried to get out of the way of the falling rocks. They were stupefied at how a rock slide could occur when there had not been a heavy rainfall anytime recently. Of course the rock slide was caused by Able who was currently tumbling down the mountain along side the rocks. This all happened because he wanted to come down the mountain to help in the quickest way possible, even if it was not that safe. He had skydived without a parachute, so what was sliding down a mountain! Mary and the halflings were practically jumping in joy at the timely rescue, oblivious to their god''s current predicament. They began to attack their Orcs again with a renewed vigor hoping to finish this up quick and head home. The tumbling rocks were very devastating and squashed many Orcs in their path on their way down the mountain. The Orcs stood no chance against the rocks and their numbers were decimated by them. All the while this was happening the halflings finally managed to kill off the second elite guardsman Orc. They swarmed him with numbers and he was taken care of much easier than the last elite guardsman. Finishing their battle the halflings were gasping for breath, but they knew they needed to help out Mary so they did not have any time to rest. The Orc chief saw this happening and disengaged Mary as he sprinted towards the Orc hunting party hoping that there were some survivors that could help him. Mary and the halflings instantly gave chase not wanting him to be able to escape. The rock slide had settled down by this time and the Rocks stopped moving leading massive rocks sitting in the pathway of the mountain pass blocking them from exiting. One would have to climb over rocks to exit the mountain and the Orc knew he would be unable to do it fast enough, so he back himself up to a rock so he would not get surrounded and prepared to fight the halflings. The Orc Chief had a shield in one hand and a sword in the other as he parried and block the incoming halflings attacks. The halflings were unrelenting, and like a rhythm they constantly attacking him leaving him no room to counter attack. The Orc chieftain was only delaying the inevitable with his pointless suffering. Every once in a while an injured Orc would come out of the rock slide with a broken arm, or severely injured and some of the halflings would break off to deal with it, then come back and attack some more. These little reprieves helped keep the Orc chief going. The most recent time this happened was when two Orcs came out at the same time, and the chief finally saw its opportunity. When four of the halflings left to deal with them he attacked in a frenzy. Unsuspecting of the sudden increase in attack two of the halflings were injured causing them to be unable to fight. The Orc Chief was again winning the fight. The Orc roared in glee as he prepared to stab at the fallen halflings, but his smile froze as a sword was stabbed through the back of his head. Looking towards the back of the Orc Chief Mary saw Able who was standing on the rock behind the Orc Chief with a grin on his face "Did ya miss me?". The two halflings that were injured on the floor nearly cried tears of joy. They were saved by their god. Able standing there on that rock with a sword in hand and the sunlight at his back looked like a god of war to them. Their fanatical minds clearly forgot to process that fact that he was all bruised and dirty from his fall down the mountain. Mary ran towards Able like a cannonball and jumped into his chest forgetting her injuries. Able winced as he too had injuries from tumbling down the mountain. He hugged Mary to his chest as he comforted her. She after all still acted like a 9 year old, so she was scared while fighting even if she didn''t show it. Now that her papa had come she could be comforted. Able nodded towards all the halflings as he said "Well this is our first Victory in the name of The God of Thrill and Adventure, and it was a *cough* glorious one" Able said as even he cringed at his words. The halflings though didn''t seem to notice as they cheered. "Search through the rubble for any remaining Orcs, then lets rest well tonight and head back tomorrow and tell the village of our Victory!" Able said as he raised his sword. ''Acting all powerful is embarrassing'' Able thought to himself. The halflings cheered, then went about their business. They cleared out the rubble and then set up camp. Once they hid their sleeping bags they instantly fell asleep. Able decided a night watch wasn''t needed and he also went to sleep as he was tired as well. 17 Coming Home Triumphan After the long an exhausting battle yesterday they all had smiles on their faces as they arrived at the village walls. The goblin seeing them coming towards the village opened the gate and let them in as he went to get the village chief. The villagers all began to pour out of the village to greet the returning warriors. They all stopped working on the farms just to come welcome them home. Able waved his hand to gather the attention of the crowd before he spoke. "We have eliminated the orcs who were terrorizing the mountains and our side of the mountain is now safe for travel." The Villagers began to cheer because the Orcs caused their village that once had stable income to fall into the depravity that they were in today. They have wished the Orcs dead for a long time, and they finally got what was coming to them. Piety filled their hearts as their God had succeeded in carrying out their greatest wish. |Miracle Created Rewarded 1500 FP| Able did not expect that killing the Orcs would lead to him getting so much FP, so happily smiled alongside the villagers. Calming himself down he continued "I will send people over to the iron mine, so they can get iron for our village. However first you need to send some people over to clear out rocks on the pathway due to a rock slide that happened." Able designated tasks for the villagers. "Is there any questions?". The village chief stepped forward and asked "Sir, the seeds you have given us have all been planted, what do you want us to do with the farms now?". Able thought before replying "Just grow those plants like normal, and have people pick weeds, to prevent them from killing the plants. You need not do anything unusual". The village Chief nodded in reply. "Now time for the rewards, for accomplishing the mission!" Able said as the halflings became excited. He turned to them and asked "Now what is it that you desire, If it is within my power I will accomplish it". The halfling leader looked at his brothers before turning to Able and saying "Sir, What we want most is names for ourselves, and a name for our group of brothers." He added the last part on himself because he thought their previous name was too embarrassing. Able was stunned at the simple request and nodded his head as he sunk into thought. "Okay I have decided on your names. The halfling leader Will be called Alpha". He said. "Thank you sir" He replied with sincerity. He went down the line to the next two strongest and said to them "You two will be Beta and Gamma" they also accepted with happiness. "You two will be Delta and Epsilon, and the two twins will be Zeta and Theta. How do you like your names?" he asked because he had just used Greek Alphabet to name them. "Enough of that, stand up" Able said as he was relieved at their response. "Now for the name of your group..." Able was really having trouble with this one because he had no idea what to call them. He wanted to use a name that had all their features in common and that was their height. ''The 50% gang?, no that''s stupid. The Half Heights? No that is lame as well'' finally Able gave up and decided to use an acronym. "You guys will be called BAHT. It stands for Below Average Height Team" He said as he tested their response. The halflings faces were filled with more joy than when they received their original name. Able was surprised at their enthusiasm, little did he know that halflings take pride in their height, so naming them after it was considered an honor for them. Able nodded and turned to Mary and asked "Now what would you like as a reward?". Hearing this Mary''s face turned bright red as she covered her face with her hands and entered the God Space. She was to embarrassed to ask for her reward in front of the whole village! Able saw her face turn red, but was not aware as to why she was embarrassed. ''Does she have stage fright?'' he wondered as he watched her enter the God Space. He turned towards the villagers before he sent them off to do work, and told the halflings to rest for a while before following Mary into the God Space. He entered and saw her laying on the bed with her face buried in her pillow. "Mary are you alright? You never told me what your reward was, why did you run off?" Able set as he patted her hair. Mary sat up and threw the pillow at his shouting "BAKA" her face still red in embarrassment. Able caught the pillow and asked again "So what do you want for your reward? Now we are alone you have no need to be embarrassed right?" He said. Mary became shy at this and said in a weak voice "I want a hug" her head was faced down to hide the embarrassment on her face. 18 The Talk Able had time to think over Mary''s feelings throughout the night and decided to confront her about them. He grabbed Mary''s shoulders and gently shook her awake. "Mary we need to talk". Mary nodded as she sat up and rubbed her sleepy eyes. She sat on her knees with her feet spread out to the sides and looked at Able waiting for him to start talking. She yawned as she was still tired, but made no complaint. "Listen...About your feelings towards me" hearing just these words made Mary anxious and embarrassed at the same time. "I don''t know if I will accept them anytime soon, I will have to wait until you have reached your Maturation period where your body will catch up to your age. However in order for you to make your relationship with me progress forward you are going to have to stop calling me papa". He never saw her as a woman, and only thought she was a cute beast kin, but now that he noticed that she was indeed a charming young lady. Mary almost cried at his words, but after thinking about them for a while, she clenched her fist as determination filled her face. "So what am I supposed to call you now?" "You can call me as you like whether it be Able, or Master. I don''t care" He said in reply. "Yes, Master" Able hugged her before he got up and smiled "Well now that this is over lets check out our progress". He wanted to quickly move over this subject as it was kind of awkward. Able looked at Mary''s stats and saw that she had leveled up one time reaching Level 17. He no longer placed his underlings ability points and gave them permission to do it themselves. He only placed them himself when he created new underlings. He knew they were smart enough to choose a path that worked for them. He noticed to other changes to her stats other than her Level, so he closed her page and opened the halflings. Looking at the halflings a smile grew on his face because of their increase in Levels. They were after all facing higher Level enemies, so an increase in levels was expected. Alpha had Leveled up four times to reach Level 8, but he had not yet gotten an ability for himself, but there was something new under the Trait tab. ====================================== Name: Alpha Age: 34 Race: Halfling Title: None Level: 8 Trait: [Mithril Raindrop Formation] Abilities: None Items: None Str: 60 Def: 30 Con: 10 Dex: 100 Int: 20 Wis: 0 Cha: 0 Per: 40 ======================================== What confused Able the most was that all the halflings had the same Trait. However since there was formation in the name he assumed that they would be required to work together to activate their ability. He asked Mary if the same races always get the exact same trait and she said the awakening of the trait was dependent on the environment, but they would in general be in roughly the same category of attack type. For example if there were two goblins one would not awaken a claw attack while the other gets a fire breath attack. Most likely one would get a claw attack while the other would get a bite attack, as they are of the same nature. Able summoned the halflings after checking their stats so they could demonstrate their ability. When the halflings arrived they complied and went into a formation with all of them surrounding a test dummy Able prepared. It was made of Iron and he spent a few FP points to get it just for this test. The halflings began to move in a counter clockwise way as they attacked in turns against the dummy target. Eventually their attacks began to come so frequently their fists sounded like rain during a thunderstorm with no reprieve in between attacks. After two minutes of attacking, the test dummy was broken into pieces and you could still see dent marks from their fists on the iron. Able was shocked at the power of this formation and assumed it also increase the attack damage of the halflings along with their defense. Able asked Alpha for the specifics of the Talent and he said it was only usable if all seven halflings were there, and would not work if one of them was missing. He said technically you could add more people to the formation, but that would be near impossible as they only got this Talent due to their teamwork during the Orc fight, so there was most likely none other like it. 19 Level 2 God Able spent the required FP to Level up and received a few messages. |Level Up| |Dungeon Floors Unlocked| |Abilities Unlocked| ''Finally I level up!'' He cheered to himself as he began to check his stats. He looked at his attributes and was shocked to notice that he had 50 available attributes to use. He put fourty into strength and ten into dexterity. ====================================== Name: Able Age: 22 Race: Arch God Title: God of Thrill and Adventure Level: 2 Dominions: Delphi Village (Inhabitants: 112) Faith: 1242 (Gain 128 Per Day) Traits: None Abilities: None Assistants: 1 Subordinates: 0 Str: 50 Def: 10 Con: 10 Dex: 20 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Cha: 10 Per: 10 ======================================== Able was happy with his stats, at Level two he could already have solo killed that Orc if he had the current stats now. ''Gods are over powered huh'' he thought to himself as he looked at the stats for a Level 2 God. He went to check out the new tabs he unlocked from his level up. The dungeon floor one was not as helpful to him right now because no one had even been in his dungeon left, so he didn''t waste any FP on that. Looking at the Abilities his eyes lit up. He went to the Abilities and saw he only had Active abilities unlocked. Able was still satisfied with this because he can finally get some more power. He scrolled through the Abilities and saw the cheapest one was [slash] at 100 FP with the most expensive having a long trail of zeros. Mary saw him looking through the abilities and said to the side "If you have enough FP you should buy [Gate], or [Inventory]" she advised because these two were some of the most useful abilities that were available for purchase. Able looked through the abilities and saw that [Gate] was 10 million while [Inventory] was 10,000. Able looked at her and said "Now why would you assume I have 10,000 FP just lying around?". "If you can not afford them then buy the rip off of [Gate], [Perish Passage] which allows you to place a teleport point, but it will expire in one day." she said while giving him a look as she felt hurt because she was not able to tell how much FP he had. Able looked for [Perish Passage] and saw that it was 1000 FP, so he reluctantly bought it trusting Mary''s opinion. He now had only about 200 FP left and decided to summon as much inhabitants as he could, so they could produce more FP. While he was at it he turned to Mary and asked "Does the amount of people I perform the Miracle for affect how much FP I get from It?". "Hey Mary I still have 80 FP left do you want me to buy you anything?" he turned to her and asked because he had not given her anything except a hug since he created her. Mary thought for a bit before replying "I heard you talk to Alpha about this Lollipop thing from your old world. Would I be able to have on of those?" Mary asked while tilting her head. "Sure!" he said feeling somewhat dirty about giving her a lollipop. He bought a cherry flavored lollipop before unwrapping it and handing it to her. "All you have to do is lick it. Or if you get tired of licking on it you could just bite it, and then you will eat it faster." he explained a the lollipop to her as she had never had one before. Mary took the lollipop from him and slowly stuck her tongue out as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye like she was trying to tell if he was tricking her. When her tongue touched the lollipop joy flashed across her face and she instantly put it in her mouth as she relished the taste. "Twith ish so gud mashter, fank yew" (This is so good master, thank you) She said with the lollipop in her mouth not wanting to take it out. Able smiled as he said "No problem, It was only 2 FP". Mary heard this and her face reddened in excitement as the thought of having an infinite amount of lollipops filled her mind. 20 Two Weeks Pas Two weeks had passed since the Orc incident and Able now had over one thousand inhabitants in his dominion, so he was generating quite a bit of FP now. He wanted to summon more inhabitants, but was told by Mary that they would not generate FP because his shrine was Level 1 and was only able to gather faith from 1000 inhabitants. It costed 5,000 FP to upgrade his shrine, so he decided to stop summoning inhabitants. Over the two weeks Able had to spend some FP to expand the village making more housing, and summon more inhabitants making this no longer Delphi village, but the Town of Delphi. He also spent some FP to build a wall surrounding the Town with each side being one kilometer in length. The walls were well made, being one meter thick stone walls that were easily defensible . It costed him a lot, but he thought it was worth it to improve his dominion. He also purchased some new abilities for his subordinates to help them on their missions. To Level up to a Level 3 God it would cost him 10,000 FP, so he was trying to save up his FP to buy that next. During the two weeks adventurers came to the Town on their way to the mountains, but when they heard there was a dungeon they went to check it out. The adventurers only looked inside, but didn''t enter before they left from where they returned to report it to their superiors at the adventurer guild in Zalfari. However, it takes a week to travel to this town by wagon, so it will be a while before more adventurers come to dive into the dungeon. Adventurers go into dungeons look for loot, and hunt monsters for money. Even though they can''t capture dungeons, one of the higher powers has placed bounties on any dungeon core you destroy enticing many Adventurers to go into the dangerous dungeons. With pressure coming from the adventurers Able used to floor function to make three floors putting the dungeon core on the lowest one. He did not have enough money for a dungeon boss, so he just placed more monsters inside. He placed more Orcs, golems, Gnolls, and Skeletons and separated the monsters by type on different floors with the Golems and skeletons on the same floor to cover each others weaknesses. --- Able sat on a couch looking at his FP and sighed as he only had about 4000. He would need to wait six days at the latest to be able to Level up. All these dangers were coming in faster and faster and he needed to grow stronger as quick as possible. Mary, as if sensing his troubles sat next his and hugged him. Able smiled as he patted her head cheering up a little bit. "Master, BAHT has reached Lucrox and are beginning to dive into the dungeon as we speak" she said informing him of the teams progress. Able smiled as he finally heard some good news. "How long do you think it will take them to scout out the floors?" he asked. "We already reached the second floor and it has only been an hour, so it should not take us more than a week to find the boss at least". Able did some information gathering through BAHT and found that the Goblin King of Greed was only Level 4, and you can only have one boss monster in your dungeon until Level 5. He had to pay some FP to ask Genesis this question. Listening to Alpha through her ability Mary finally turned to Able and said "It wont take more than a week, at the most" relaying Alpha''s message. Able sunk into thought as he was deciding whether or not to send some of his minions to Zalfari to go see the situation there as well. Thinking over it Able decided to go there himself because he was bored sitting around in his God Space all day. The reason he didn''t go to Lucrox himself was because he had to take care of things here first, but now that he had settled things he decided to go to Zalfari. He also had [Perish Passage] that would allow him to set a single teleport a day with it expiring in a day. The only downsides were that you can only have one teleport point active at a time, so if you set another one the previous one would no longer work, and the teleport point was only able to send him back into the God space. So he was unable to transport from Lucrox to Zalfari, only from Zalfari to his God Space. Able turned to Mary and said "Can you get the horses ready for us to travel to Zalfari, and no need to prepare any food or anything, lets just take a bag for cover. I will teleport us back here every day, so we will sleep here" Able ordered her. 21 Egotistic Merchan Able and Mary were leisurely riding along the road atop their horses on their way towards Zalfari. The sun was up, and it was around mid day. "Mary do you have an idea what the situation there is going to be like?" "Sorry Master I was only born with knowledge of dominions" She shook her head. "What about you Genesis?" "It will cost you 1000 FP to answer that question God" she replied. Able instantly decided that he was going to find the situation out himself. He didn''t need someone else to tell him what it was going to be like. A while later they saw a caravan on the road in the distance. As they got closer they noticed it was a merchant caravan. The caravan was five wagons long, and had about twenty guards protecting it. They all looked like they had been through battle before, and were quite strong. "Genesis what are their Levels? You don''t need to ask me about the FP cost unless it is over 500 from now on" He told her. "Yes god, The highest Level guard is only Level 9 and the Lowest is Level 4" She informed him. Able was shocked. This group of guards could level his city if they wanted to. They would only be able to hold them off for a little before they eventually won the fight. As they got closer to the caravan the guards made their presence clear, but did not pay too much attention to them. While thinking of something Able called out to one of the guards "Are you going to Delphi?" he was curious because the only destination on this path was Delphi. One of the guards turned to him and said "Yea, you been dere ''fore? How''s it lookin?" "The Town is great now. They had expanded a lot recently because they had just become a dominion under a god, so their future is looking good" Able replied. Mary stood silently besides him not saying anything. A voiced reached out from the wagon "Oh? A god? Have you seen the god yet? You believe everything you hear now don''t you?" the voice mocked. The caravan came to a halt at the voices orders as a guard came around to bring a set of stairs to help the man get down from the wagon. Once he set the stairs down a obese man slowly wobbled out of the wagon. He was easily over four hundred pounds, and wore nice fine silk cloths that accentuated his wealth. Able unconsciously said "Fat" with wide eyes, and the man before him heard this and became enraged. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN FAT! I will have you know this is peak male form! This here is the ideal male body type! I get constant women fawning over me! Look the little girl next to you has her eyes wide open just looking at me!" He yelled at Able. As if sensing her anger Able patted her on the head to calm her down which worked quite well. The Merchant kept talking "I am part of the great Cavendish Trading company that transports goods to eight different dominions, and you think that I am fat?" Hearing this Able''s eyes brightened "Can you tell me about those dominions?" He asked wanted to gather information on his destined enemies. The merchants face became red in embarrassment hearing this question. He couldn''t answer it! He was only a low ranking member of the Merchant company and only joined a month ago. He was also not very competent in business and only got in because he was a young master from a well off family. "I-erm-you-I-uh-That-That''s classified information" the Merchant stuttered trying to think of a response. Able looked at him and connected the dots. He sighed and figured he would really have to gather information himself as he bid the Merchant farewell. Him and Mary again set of towards Zalfari as Mary asked "Master why did you let him live when he disrespected you like that?" Able shook his head and sighed "Mary their fighting force is way stronger than ours, and we don''t need to kill someone for yelling at me. We are not strong enough to enforce rules like that". 22 Zalfari Able and Mary were standing in line at the gates of Zalfari waiting to get it. There was a check that everyone had to go through, making sure you were no one bad. When they arrived at the gate the guard said, "Let me see your registration, and your purpose of coming to Zalfari" He said as he held out his hand, boredom evident in his eyes. He has been doing the same think for four hours already, and couldn''t wait for his shift to be over. "I don''t have any registration, and my reason for coming is for sightseeing" Able said with a stiff smile. "If you don''t have registration it will cost you 2 silvers each to get one" He said in reply. "Go over to the registry office right over there he pointed towards a building not far into the City. Able nodded and walked there with Mary and got his registration done. One it was completed he payed the guard the entrance fee into the town and began to go look around the town with Mary. As they were walking their eyes wandered over the many merchant stalls and shops all around the street in amazement. Mary saw someone who was selling cabbage and her eyes lit up. She tugged Able''s sleeve and pointed towards the cabbage. "You want some cabbage?" He said as most kids don''t like to eat their greens. Mary nodded in excitement while looking at it. Able then remembered she was a sheep beast kin, so he no longer thought it was weird. He bought the cabbage and they kept walking as Able was not fond of eating cabbage by itself. As they were walking they turned a corner and Mary who was too busy eating her cabbage ran into someone and fell on the floor. Luckily however, she saved her cabbage and it did not fall on the floor. The man she ran into had nice wealthy clothes with extravagant colors trying to show off his wealth. He had to guards tailing him for protection and had a furious expression on his face. "YOU FILTHY ANIMAL! YOU DIRTIED MY CLOTHES" He roared in fury as a small leaf of cabbage had stuck to his clothes. "DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE THESE ARE? ARE YOU GOING TO PAY FOR THEM?" He roared. Mary got up with a little anger on her face, but politely apologized "Sorry sir, I will compensate you. How much is your shirt?" She did not think that it was that expensive, so she was expecting to pay twenty silver max. "This cost me five gold coins! Now pay up!" He said in a smug tone. Able''s eyes widened as he heard their conversation. Them crashing into each other was Mary''s fault, however this was a blatant rip off! There was no way his shirt cost five gold coins! "There is no way that we are paying that much for a leaf of cabbage that stuck to your shirt!" Able said in irritation. "Mary lets go" He said as he pulled Mary by the hand away from the man. Able was now royally pissed off! He turned around and slammed his fist into the mans face. "Who do you think you are ordering you guards to capture MY assistant!" He said and he overlooked the man on the ground. The man now had a busted lip and had tears coming out of his eyes. He looked up at Able with fear in his eyes as he shivered. He guards stood at the side not doing anything because they felt Able was stronger than them. They just watched as their Employer was beat up. Seeing as how the man said nothing Able nodded then again grabbed Mary''s hand and walked away. This time no one tried to stop him. The spectators on the street also made a path for Able as they watched him walk past. Able turned to Mary and asked "Are you alright?" Mary nodded as she looked at Able with love. He was her knight in shining armor right now! She wanted nothing more than to hug him, but she knew her feeling would not me reciprocated right now. She was suddenly downcast as she thought about this. ''sigh, I still need to wait three more months for my maturation period.'' she though. 23 Adventurers ID Able and Mary quickly forgot about the incident with the rich snob and walked until they found the adventurers guild. It was not hard to find because of the sign on it with a shield that had two swords crossed in front of it. They walked into the guild and saw it was very much like a tavern and had a bar that sold beer and food to the guests. There were only a little bit of people inside right now drinking and Able assumed it was because they were all out on missions given by the guild. This was their job after all. Able walked up to the receptionist and went to get verified as an adventurer. This way it would be much easier to travel around places, as they would have an excuse. "If you want to get verified as an adventurer it will cost you five silvers for each. This guild is only able to give you up to D-Rank Verification" She smiled as she explained. "What are the Ranks and how are they given?" Able asked. "The Ranks are Divided into increments of 20 by your Levels, so F-Rank would be Levels 1-20 and A-Rank is Levels 80-100." The receptionist politely explained. "Is there not an S-Rank?" Able asked because in most light novels there is an S-Rank. With a troubled look on her face the receptionist replied "There is, but I am not sure how one gets it. However I know that S-Rank adventurers are stronger than Level 100." Able had a shocked look on his face because he assumed that Level 100 was the max. "Well then lets go get our Verification, both of us are only F-Rank adventurers it seems" Able said to the receptionist. He did not have to take a test or anything because he was only getting an F-Rank verification, so there was no need. The receptionist politely bowed, then left into the back to go prepare their Adventurer ID. As they were waiting they heard a chatter as the doors of the adventurer guild were thrown open. "HaHaHa, we have completed the D-Rank mission of subjugating the Minotaur!!" A man in armor said cockily. "Yeah boss, that cow was not even that hard to kill. I don''t see why It should be a D-Rank mission." "Yeah! Boss was able to kill it in three hits! It didn''t stand a chance" His lackeys said buttering him up. The man in armor grinned and said "I think I should be upgraded to D-Rank already! I don''t see why I need to wait until I am Level 20. I am already stronger than that!" He said as they walked up to the receptionist desk to claim their reward. They were acting high and mighty even though the Minotaur they killed was weak due to illness! The boss of the group was only Level 10 while his lackeys were around Level 6! There was no way they could Kill a Level 25 Minotaur at their Level! The trio walked to one of the other receptionists and handed in one of the Minotaur horns. The receptionist bowed as she left to go get their money. Able looked down at his card in amazement with this, no one would be able to Rank up when they were not the right level! The card only showed your Level, and nothing else due to privacy reasons. The trio saw him receive his ID and snuck a peak at their cards. When they saw Able''s card the leader began laughing as he taunted Able. "A weak little Level 2 already wants to try and save the world? HAHAHA! You want to be a hero, and try and impress a girl?" Hearing this Able and Mary were irritated! What did it matter that he was only Level 2? Even if he was, Able could most likely give this man a run for his money! The receptionist scrunched up her face as she was also angry. These were after all her people! "Derick could you please refrain from taunting new Guild recruits. It ruins our reputation" She said as she looked at him trying to hide her disgust. "Aww don''t be that way Olivia. You know I was only messing around. How about I help them train for a bit to show i''m sorry." Derick said as he looked at Able with malice. Bullying new recruits was one of his favorite things to do other than go to the brothel with the money he gained from adventuring. 24 Training Field Battle Able showed him the whites of his eyes "I don''t think there is anything you could teach me." He said, as he was once the number one swords master back on Earth. He knew, however that his skills were meager compared to the top of this world, but compared to this slob? He had a thousand times more skill with a sword. Derick was incensed "What do you mean I can''t teach you! Don''t disrespect your elders kid!" he roared. How dare that kid talk back to me! I am a level 10 he should feel honored talking to me being only a lowly Level 2! "Yes, I can''t learn anything from you, so why should I accept?" Able said with a smile. "Of course it''s because I told you to!" Derick shouted. "I have no reason to accept. If you give me some incentive I might begrudgingly accept." Able said as if he was doing Derick a huge favor. "Alright lets make a bet then! Lets bet 10 gold coins!" Derick said betting all of his saving as he was blinded by anger. "Oh? I guess this is acceptable" Able said hiding his smirk. Derick turned to his lackeys and snickered thinking of how he would easily earn 10 gold coins. "Olivia would you referee our match?" Derick turned to Olivia. Olivia turned to Able and seeing that he nodded she sighed "It would be my honor". She put her hand out and began leading them towards the training field. -- Derick and Able were facing each other on the training field about fifty meters apart. The training field was built like a roman coliseum, only smaller. Mary was sitting in the stands with Olivia and the two lackeys as they prepared to watch the fight. Derick looked at Able as he taunted "You look so poor that i''m afraid you won''t be able to pay off your debt. I will take that sheep beast kin as collateral, so don''t worry" He said with malice. Able was again pissed off! ''Why do all the people in this city want to take Mary from me?'' he thought in anger. Able pulled out his sword and slightly bent his waist as he prepared to fight Derick. Derick was a big man that had a scraggly beard and a scar on his chin. Looking at him you could tell he has been through a number of fights, but his standing position clearly explained his lack of training. Able smirked looking at this and said nothing to his taunts. Olivia then began chanting, and once she was done she said "When this fireball blows up You may start!". She threw the fireball above the arena as she finished talking. The fireball exploded in the air at the same time Derick sprinted into motion. Able on the other hand stood where he was, and made no movements. Able turned his head towards Olivia and asked "Is there any consequences for killing people here?" he asked. "You are not allowed to kill on the training field, however anything short of death is fine" She replied. Able did not respond to him, and just stood there waiting for him to attack. And Derick did just that, he slashed straight towards Able''s waist hoping to knock him off balance at least if not bisecting him. He had a healing potion, so he would be able to save Able''s life, but he would live without legs. Able saw this and made an elegant move with his sword as it traced the edge of Derick''s sword moving it off course and away from his body. Although this looked easy it took a lot of strength, and he was only able to do this now, because he was not to far behind on strength compared to Derick. He was not able to fight like this with the Orcs because they were way stronger than him. As he was fighting he heard in his head |The ability [Counter] has been Acquired| Able was stunned. He could also learn abilities from fighting? Thinking back on it, it made sense because other residents of this world also need to get skills. As he was thinking of this Derick was confused at how his attack was blocked so easily. Thinking he messed up his attack Derick turned towards Able activating an ability as he yelled SLASH! His sword had a red glow following it as he attacked Able. Seeing this Able again countered his attack, but this time he followed up with his sword. "It looks like this match is over" Able said to Olivia as he sheathed his sword. Derick was angry! "The match just started what do you mean its over?! Who said you can just end it whenever you want? Was it because you knew you would loose?" He yelled. Able sighed and shook his head as he turned to Derick while tapping his neck. Derick was confused before he brought his hand to his neck and felt a cool sensation there. Looking at his hand he was shocked in horror. There was blood covering his hand. Thinking back on the question Able asked Olivia his legs began to shake in terror. Thinking of the consequences that would happen if killing was allowed made Derick''s face pale. "Able is the winner of today''s training match!" Olivia yelled with joy in her voice. 25 Library The battle with Derick had no affect on Able, and he soon forgot about it as he went along with his day. It was just business to him, you don''t remember all the people you sell apples to do you? Him and Mary were now in front of the Library and wanted to look for information on this world, to help them understand more of it. They walked up to the doors, and when they walked in they were greeted by a short man with a long nose and points ears sitting at a desk. He had glasses on and was on a tall chair used, so he was not bellow the table. He looked up and said in a monotonous voice "Let me see your Library Pass" as he turned his head back down to continue reading his book. "We don''t have one" Able said as he prepared some money beforehand. "Five silvers" The man curtly. Able handed him the payment and got two passes with a magic symbol inscribed on them and the word Library pass. Able walked towards the pedestal that was in the center of the Library, and had the categories of books listed. He looked it over and finally found the books on the "gods" there was only three books that were in this category and Able was bummed. He still took them out, and walked over to the table and sat down. Mary however went to look for other books by herself, and Able let her do as she liked. He sat down with his books and read through them as he looked for information regarding dominions around them. After searching through the Books he found that there was four dominions around Zalfari. There was the Goblin God of Greed who ruled over Lucrox who was to the north west of Zalfari. Two other Dominions were The Hive, and The Palace of Mounds ruled by the Goddess of Honey, and The Queen of the Hill respectively. These two were both to the south, and were constantly at war, and have been fighting for over ten years. Both of those two dominions are ruled by a Queen who constantly produced workers, and since they are very similar, they also seem to have a born hatred for each other. One rules the skies, while one rules the Earth, however they both want to rule them both. It was bees Versus ants, and it has had no clear winner for a decade. The last Dominion is ruled by The God of the Grieved and is different from normal Gods in that his Dominion is entirely his Dungeon. It is called the Pyramid of the Dead, and is the largest dungeon around Zalfari. There was no other information that was as detailed as the four Dominions listed, but it did talk about Dominions that had once been, but were wiped out. There was only two, but it happened, and they were both wiped out by the ruler of the Pyramid of the Dead. The two dominions were left as is, and were still big cities with trade points that had their own dungeons. Done with his books he looked over towards Mary "Are you about done reading? I have finished up on my end" He told her. Hearing the sudden voice Mary was flustered and scrambled to close her book and almost fell out of her chair. With a red face she replied "I''m ready to go when you are master". Able nodded and picked up his books and went to grab Mary''s, but she quickly took them, and said she would put them away herself. Seeing this reaction Able wondered what she was reading, but did not poke further into it and let her be. They left the library after that and went to get a room at an inn for a night to keep up appearances. Able thought it was necessary in case they were being watched. They went to the dinning room of the inn, and decided to eat dinner there. As they were eating dinner Mary received a call from BAHT saying they were already at the boss room, but failed to beat it the first time around, so they were now recuperating. Able nodded thinking that they were making quite good time on the Dungeon. Even if the Dungeon boss was harder than normal he wondered why the rest of the Goblin dungeon was so easy. ''Would it not be in a gods best interest to make their dungeon hard to conquer?'' he thought. He was wondering if the Goblin God was either stupid, or very calculating, and was eager to find out which. Since Lucrox was his first target he wanted the god to be stupid, but somewhere deep in his heart he wanted the Goblin God to be a tough opponent. 26 Dungeons First Defense Able and Mary entered the God Space from Zalfari. He decided to check up on the Egotistic Merchant that was traveling towards Delphi because he was afraid that he would cause a ruckus. The Merchant arrived at Delphi, and was acting high and mighty like always, but he did not purposely create trouble for the Inhabitants. This caused Able to raise his opinion of him slightly, because he did not try and abuse his power. He just rented the best inn room the Town had, and went around looking for items that he could gather for trading. There was not much in the town as of right now that was a rare commodity except the Corn that they were growing. This Corn had not ever been seen before outside of this Town, so the Merchant practically went ballistic. He bought all the produced corn that he could, because he knew a never before seen crop would sell very well, because rich people like rarities. Able had the Townsfolk process the Corn first, so that when bought it would be unable to be planted anywhere else. This way they would be the only ones able to produce it. After the merchant bought some supplies he went back to his room, to do what merchants do, and let his guards off work. They were only liable to transport to and from the Town, not protect him while in the town. The guards heard there was a dungeon here, so they decided to check it out. ---Guards Pov "Hey Joseph, you think this dungeon will be as hard as The Pyramid of the Dead?" one of the lower level guards asked Joseph the Level 9 guard. "This is a new dungeon, so it should be easy to conquer" Joseph said as the looked at the entrance into the dungeon. They could hear the growls of the monsters inside, sending shivers down the spines of the weaker guards. "Quite being such a wuss, if we destroy the core, then we can get 100 Gold coins!" Joseph said as greed filled his eyes. The other guards jumped in and also convinced the guard, as they began walking into the dungeon. They went into formation, ready to guard against the attacks of the monsters. After entering they were greeted by a group of gnolls. The gnolls laughed viciously as slobber dripped out of their mouths. They looked at the guards as if seeing their dinner, licking their lips in anticipation. The guards in the back pulled out their bows, and shot towards the gnolls in the back while the guards in front drew their swords and quickly dealt with the gnolls. The passed through the first floor very easily, as gnolls were not that strong of opponents with only two of the guards getting wounded. When they saw the stairs leading down Joseph turned to ask "Want to keep going? We haven''t found any treasure yet, but we do have a lot of monster drops we can sell". The guards agreed that they should keep going, so the continued on, towards the Orc floor. He was watching the guards progression through the Dungeon through the God''s view (what he named the screen in the God Space) and saw that they easily swept through the first floor. He realized why the goblin dungeon seemed so weak, it was because the monsters you could summon at the lower levels were trash! Quickly thinking of something to stop them Able created a few traps along the way of their path hoping to kill some of them. He also created a dungeon boss room, so that he could create a boss monster. Looking through the possible boss monsters he was disheartened at the possible choices. There was only five possible choices ===Dungeon=== ~Bosses~ ?Giant Goblin (1000 FP, Base Cost) ?Berserker Orc (3000 FP, Base Cost) ?Gnoll Shaman (5000 FP, Base Cost) ?Cyclops (10000 FP, Base Cost) ?Lich (50000 FP, Base Cost) ?Locked¡ý ============ Looking at the prices of the Dungeon bosses made Able want to cry. They were very expensive, the more powerful they were. He decided to buy a Gnoll Shaman because he wanted some magic damage in his dungeon. Even though this would set back his Level up, he realized it was worth it in order to protect his dungeon core. He moved the Dungeon core to a room behind the Dungeon Boss room, and finished equipping the Gnoll Shaman Leveling it up to Level 10 straight away. He gave most of its attribute points into wisdom to increase its magic damage. He put some of the others into random attributes. The Gnoll Shaman was worth it because it was able to summon its own minions, and even if it was killed it only costed 10 percent of its original cost to re summon it, and this took some weight off its chest. After finishing preparing the dungeon boss he sat back down and watched the Guards making their way through the dungeon. 27 Defense Success! Joseph and the guards were in the dungeon hacking away at the Orcs who were besieging them. They were protecting one of their wounded, who had a spike pierced through his stomach. He was slowly bleeding out, and would die if he didn''t get medical attention. They were originally very cocky about easily sweeping through the first floor of the dungeon, but when they got to the second floor they started running into traps. One of the guards was impaled by a spike trap, and was now dying on the floor. They were surrounded by Orcs, and had no way to get out fast enough to save their fellow guardsman. Joseph hacked off a head of one of the Orcs as he turned to the other guards and said "I think we might have to leave him, more Orcs are coming, and if we stay here we may lose our lives as well". The guard who was bleeding on the floor looked up in horror "No, don''t! I don''t want to die! I still have a wife waiting for me at home!" Joseph looked towards the guard on the floor "Sorry, but we all have people waiting for us as well". Joseph got the guards into formation, as they spear headed their way out of the orc besiegement. As they were running away they heard the cusses of the guard on the floor slowly turn into screams, and then silence. They closed their ears towards this, and just ran farther away from the Orcs. They only wanted to leave the dungeon, they no longer were looking forward to killing the dungeon core. As they were running away, they were to preoccupied with running and were not paying attention to their surroundings, and two of the guards fell into a pit fall, dying once they hit the spikes at the bottom. Joseph gulped, and slowed down their retreat as the headed towards the stairs leading towards the first floor. Dungeons were too vicious, they would stick to being guards, because even if they met robbers they were more likely to survive than if they went into a dungeon. ---Able''s Pov He watched as one of the spike traps stabbed into the guard impaling him in joy. "YES!" he yelled as he jumped in joy! He was originally scared that the guards would make it do his dungeon core, because he wanted to test the dungeons capability he did not personally help defend the dungeon, he wouldn''t be he all the time after all, so he wanted it to be able to defend iteself. So he, along with Mary were only able to watch as the guards entered the dungeon. When he saw the pass the first floor he quickly summoned a boss monster out of worry. Now that he saw them being stopped at the Second floor he was bummed. ''I wasted FP on the boss monster, and didn''t even get to see it fight'' Through the screen he saw the Orcs surround the Guards, constantly attacking them. He knew the guards were done for if they did not escape, so he was happy. The Orcs quickly killed the guard on the floor quickly as they gave chase to the retreating guards wanting to kill as many as they could. As the guard died Able heard a prompt |Requirement met, Monster Spawners Unlocked| Just as he was thinking of wasting FP on restocking his dungeon he got this! This was perfect timing! He check in the shop and saw that Monster Spawners were 100x more expensive than the original monster, but he knew they would pay for themselves over time. He watched the guards exit the dungeon with three less than what had entered the dungeon. The guards were walking in low spirits, as they had to sacrifice their friends in order to leave alive. Able on the other hand was in high spirits, His first Dungeon Defense was a success! Since he was running out of FP he only bought one Gnoll monster spawner for the first floor, because they were all wiped out. He then summoned some extra Gnolls and decided he was done fixing the dungeon for the day. Nodding as he looked at the map of his dungeon he was content with his current progress. Even though this set him back on his upgrade to Level 3, he figured it was worth it. 28 Hell bear "BAHT has reported the situation of the dungeon boss in Lucrox''s dungeon. They have fought it two times, and lost both times however they have collected valuable information on the boss, and want you to come up with a strategy in order to defeat the dungeon boss." Able nodded and said "Tell them to give me the information on the boss, I have time right now, and should be able to analyze the situation." Mary nodded and began to talk to them over call. Seeing this Able thought it was very inconvenient and ineffective, so he purchased call also so he could directly talk to them. He told Mary he would call them instead and she complied. He reached them through call and they began to describe what happened in the dungeon. They described their trek through the dungeon which was pretty much filled with goblins of all kinds, and a few explosions (As goblins love explosives). Then they began to talk about the boss of the dungeon. "The boss was something called a Hell Bear. It was a bipedal creature that was blood red, and had sharp claws and teeth. Its main form of attack was its claws, but it also had a few other abilities to defend itself with. It used [Thunder Clap] and [War Stomp] which were both area of effect spells used to defend against large crowds. He also summoned minions every once in a while called Hell Bear Clubs, who were just smaller versions of him without the abilities that carried clubs." "The reason we lost was due to these AOE abilities messing with our trait. Our formation was disrupted due to the abilities causing it to collapse." Alpha continued. Able began contemplating as he heard this. "Have you seen the Goblin God as of yet?" He asked curious as to why it has yet to make an appearance. "No he has not, but there was an increase in traps along the way after we made it to the boss room the first time" He said after thinking about it for a while. This made Able realize that the Goblin God was indeed watching his dungeon, but just had not made an appearance as of yet. "I think I may have to visit Lucrox to deal with this Goblin God myself" he mumbled. Also, after hearing about the Dungeon Boss Able wondered whether or not location affected the monsters you could summon. Mary nodded as he asked her the question confirming his theory. "Okay describe to me the layout of the Boss Room, so I can help formulate a plan of attack." Alpha began asking the other halflings about what they remembered before coming back to him after a few minutes. "The Boss room was in the layout of a giant square. The center of the room was where the Hell bear was situated at the beginning of the fight. When he summoned the Hell Bear Clubs there was four at a time that appeared on his four directions. There was two huge spikes situated in the far left corner, and to the right of the entrance." Hearing all this Able began to think of a plan to eliminate the Hell Bear. He wanted to see if the Goblin God would act after the boss was defeated, and if he did then Able would go eliminate him himself. Able began describing the halflings his plan, and went through every detail with them to make sure it would go flawlessly. "That is genius God, if we do that then killing him will be no problem" Alpha said as his voice filled with excitement. "Yeah yeah, don''t get so worked up alright? Just make sure you follow the plan" Able said as he rolled his eyes. His minions were always over praising him. "Yes Sir! It will be done!" Alpha said regaining his calm. Able ended the call and looked towards Mary and said "What do you think?" "You plan is indeed very well made, but I think we need to head over to Lucrox because BAHT will be unable to stop the Goblin God if he goes on a rampage. He is assumed to be at Level 3 if not Level 4 which makes him many times stronger than the halflings" She said as she went over the possible scenarios in her mind. Able agreed and said "Yeah, Lets start making our way over now. If we hurry we can make it in three days. No one ever complained about assistance coming early." 29 Goblin Horde Able and Mary were ridding along as fast as they could towards Lucrox. Able was pushing the horse to run faster as it panted in exhaustion. He did not know why, but he had an impending feeling, like something bad was going to happen. He was deep in contemplation as he heard Mary yell at him to look in front. He looked up, and saw a giant dust cloud in the distance racing towards them. He was stunned at the sight, and thought an army was marching towards him. When he looked closer at the cloud it was indeed an army, but they were not marching towards him, they were chasing after something. It was a giant army of goblins chasing after seven little halflings running for their lives. The halflings frantically ran as they helped support their injured brethren sometimes turning around to taunt the chasing goblins. If you don''t include the fact that if they are caught they will be killed, then this could be considered a comical sight. The halflings noticed Able in the distance, and their faces brightened as their speed picked up. There was at least two thousand goblins chasing after them, and they seemed to be seriously pissed off. The halflings arrived in front of Able as he jumped off his horse and began killing goblins. The goblins were not a match for him at all, and with every stroke of his sword a goblin, sometimes two, would lose its life. The goblins caught up to the group now that they had stopped and surrounded them while growling. Able turned towards them and said with a sigh "What have you guys gotten me into?" Alpha turned to him and laughed with gusto "Its no big deal god! Just a bunch of small fries". He pulled out some explosives from his bag and threw them towards the places where the goblins were most clumped up caused massive amounts of destruction. He laughed as he saw this and said "I will have to thank that Goblin god for introducing these explosives to me, they are so fun!" when the other halflings heard this they began laughing also. Able saw this and felt a chill down his spine. Did he just inadvertently create a group of pyromaniacs. Subconsciously Able scooted away from the group as he watched them throw explosives at the goblins. However their explosives were not able to take out all the goblins, so Mary and Able were also slashing away at the goblins in abandon killing as many as they could. The goblins though, even with the death of many of their comrades did not give up. They attacked until the last goblin fell hoping to take down the group. Seeing this fearlessness of the goblins Able began to wonder what the halflings did to make the cowardly goblins act as such. Able set the injured halflings on the horses as he decided to find a place for the group to camp for the night and heal. They walked until they got to a nice spot next to a stream, and started to set up camp there. Able and Mary set up their own tent, and even helped the halflings out, as they were all injured. Since Alpha was the least injured out of all the halflings he left to go gather some firewood, for the campfire while waving off Able who asked if he needed to gather the wood instead. Since Able was unable to gather firewood he quickly used [Perish Passage] and went back to the God Space and bought health potions for the halflings to make sure they did not die. He was not able to bring all the halflings back with him through [Perish Passage] due to its limited capacity, and he was only able to use it once a day, so he was also unable to ferry them. The halflings began to heal, as the camp had been set up, and they got a campfire going. Able sat down at the campfire, and looked at Alpha and asked, "So tell me what happened? How did you all end up like this? Start from the beginning." 30 Fight with the Hell Bear 1 Alpha''s voice drifted through the night as he began to recall the story of their difficult times in Lucrox. "Well you see it all began after the call with you ended. After you ended the call we decided to rest up for a few minutes before attacking the dungeon boss again." ---Scene Change to BAHT pov "What do you say boys? You think we can do it this time?" Alpha said as he looked towards the other halflings who were munching on food. "Yeah no problem, we can do it because of God''s Plan" Gamma said nonchalantly as he was not worried about the fight. He had one hundred percent confidence in his god, so he had no need to be worried. "Yeah I also think we can kill the Hell Bear, but the thing that worries me is what that bastard Goblin God would do once we kill it. Even God warned us, to retreat as soon as we encountered him after all" Epsilon said. "Yeah the Goblin God is the only challenging thing in this godforsaken dominion. If there was no god protecting it the seven of us could wipe it out ourselves." Delta said as he threw a piece of wood into the fire. "Don''t get ahead of yourself. There are at least ten thousand if not more goblins living in this dominion, so the seven of us would not be able to destroy it as easily as you make it sound" Alpha interjected. "Well even if it is not easy for us, we will still be able to do it, if we do hit and runs. Or if our god comes then he could wipe them all out himself" Delta said. "Well I agree with you on that, just make sure that you know our limitations" Alpha said. Delta nodded and looked back at the fire. After a while Alpha stood up and patted the dirt of his pants. "Well lets get going then! We ought to show that Hell Bear who is boss!" The halflings all quickly packed up their things and set off towards the dungeon boss room. They made it there in five minutes. They all prepared their weapons, and pushed open the door and walked into the room. They all knew what to expect since they had already tried twice before, so they quickly got into position. At the center of the room was a giant boss that was blood red in color that was standing on two legs. It had a big jaw with sharp teeth and sharp claws. It ears jutted out from the side of its head, and twitched once it heard people entering its territory. It looked up at the halflings and roared as it saw them enter. It had already defeated them twice, and they dared to come back and challenge him again? He wanted to eliminate them for trampling on its pride. The halflings quickly activated their formation as they surrounded the Hell Bear. They ran in a circle as they began attacking him periodically dealing a lot of damage. The Hell Bear, had already experienced this though, and immediately used [Thunder Clap] and broke their formation as they flew backwards. The Hell Bear was not strong enough to pull it out, but it still used it like a whip trying to use its longer reach to hit the halflings. Beta was hit by the chain and coughed blood as he flew and slammed into the side of one of the spikes. He was not impaled, as he only hit the side of the spike. The spike was at least 10 meters in diameter, and was big enough to hide behind, so the halflings ran behind it as they took Beta with them. Zeta quickly pulled out a healing potion and fed it to him as the Hell Bear was stomping over towards them. The halflings hid behind the corner, and the Hell Bear was in the way of the entrance, so they were unable to leave that way. The Hell Bear though he had outsmarted them grinning as it was finally able to kill these pests. Alpha turned to Beta and said "Are you alright? Gods plan is working so far, so just hold in there. You can take the first shift on the defense side. Zeta, Theta. You two come with me. We will start attacking first." the two nodded as they stood up and walked with Alpha towards the other side of the spike. This was part of Able''s plan. They would use the spike to block the Hell Bears AOE attacks, preventing the whole formation from collapsing. After one group of halflings gets hit by the attack they would swap out with the group waiting on the other side. Even if the Hell Bear wanted to leave they already had trapped him into their formation preventing any escape, so it was a good plan. 31 Fight with the Hell Bear 2 All the halflings got up, as they got into formation, with Alpha, Zeta, and Theta on the side with the Hell Bear, and the other four being protected by the giant spike. The halflings were in a giant circle, with the Hell Bear backed up against the spike. It tried multiple times, to leave the entrapment, but was stopped short of leaving every time. By this time Beta had healed already due to the healing potion and was ready for battle. If even one of the halflings were knocked out then their formation would collapse and lose all its power. Alpha roared as he parried the Hell Bear''s strike getting pushed back from the impact. The Hell Bear was much stronger than him, so he was flung around like a rag doll. The two twins were attacking its sides as Alpha was being flung away and made two deeps cuts long its arms. They were trying to cut its tendons, to make his arms useless, but his flesh was too thick. The Hell Bear roared in fury as he used [War Stomp] causing the three halflings to go into a dazed state unable to move. The halflings on the other side of the spike felt this, and knew it was their time to move. They swapped places with the three dazed halflings as they threw them over to the safe side of the spike. Now that the other halflings were safe they began their assault on the Hell Bear. The Hell Bear was now being attacked by four halflings and was under much more pressure than before. They slashed and poked at the Hell Bear till it was bloody and tired. The halflings repeatedly circled around the spike as they took turns battling the Hell Bear. The Hell Bear roared as Delta stabbed it in the thigh and summoned its four Hell Bear Clubs. The four little Hell Bear Clubs all ran and attacked Delta at the same time. Delta was not expecting this attack and blacked out after one of the Hell Bear Clubs whacked him in the head. The formation was now broken, so the Hell Bear sprinted out of it as it went back into the center of the room. It was now wary towards the spikes, and would not near another easily. The halflings quickly backed off as they woke Delta up. They would be unable to use the [Mithril Raindrop formation] if he was unconscious. He woke after they gave him some medicine, and they gathered up as they began their next attack. The Hell Bear now had only about a third of its energy left, and would be taken out soon enough if they worked together. Alpha told something to Zeta and Theta and they nodded as they began climbing up the spike. The others grouped together and charged towards the Hell Bear ready to take it out. The minions of the Hell Bear had been resummoned by him, so they first decided to kill those pests before attacking the main boss. They dealt with the Hell Bear Clubs as the Hell Bear was attacking them in return. The Hell Bear roared as he shook trying to break the chains, or shake them off. The two twins had actually gone on the spike to swing through the chains and tie the Hell Bear up. They were swinging around on the chains like your own friendly neighborhood superhero and wrapped around him stopping his movements. The other five halflings who were stunned, now began to move as they ran towards the Hell Bear killing him because he could not fight back. The Hell bear roared in resentment the whole time because it felt cheated at its loss. The Hell Bear fell on the floor dead and the halflings began to cheer as the seven went into a group hug with the twins in the middle. They laughed as they plopped to the floor wanting to take a rest grinning all the while. It was at this time a black portal opened up in the boss room and a shriveled up green goblin walked out of it. He had a long pointy nose with very rich and vibrant cloths atop his ugly body. The goblin was currently glaring at them in malice. There was also a busty goblin girl that followed him out of the portal wearing glasses and holding some papers looking like a secretary. 32 Goblin God of Greed The Goblin God grabbed his mace as he began charging at the halflings. "You dare to kill my minions in my dungeon!" he shrieked at them as he gripped his mace and began to charge towards them. Following behind him was his busty secretary goblin. She did not look like she was prepared to fight, nor could she fight, but the halflings were still wary of her. Seeing the Goblin God charging at them the halflings immediately began sprinting out of the dungeon. They listened to Able and began retreating as soon as they saw the Goblin God. He was cursing at them as he began chasing them through the dungeon. He was very short, so his speed was not faster than theirs, so it became one short guy chasing after seven. The Goblin God was sending goblins to attack them throughout the chase to try and impede their progress, but the goblins were too weak to harm the halflings and were just getting sent to their deaths. The halflings though were happy with this arrangement because the goblins they killed were carrying explosives. They quickly ran through the dungeon looting dead goblins as they made their escape from the Goblin God. "You filthy lowlife halfling scum! Get over here this instant and I will spare your miserable lives torture before death!" the Goblin God shrieked as he chased after them. He was royally pissed off now that he had lost so many goblins due to the halflings. He chased them for a full hour and a half before they finally made their way out of the dungeon. The halflings stopped for a moment before Gamma nudged Alpha and said as he pointed towards the city "What do you say we go give Lucrox a present?" he held the explosives he gathered in his hands. Alpha''s eyes sparkled as he nodded leading the halflings towards Lucrox. This was not part of Able''s plan, and was a spur of the moment decision the halflings made in order to weaken the Goblin God of Greed. At this time the Goblin God burst out of the Dungeon entrance with tons of goblins pouring out along with him. He looked at the halflings running towards his city and screamed "Kill those pests! I want their heads on stakes!". Seeing them running towards his city the Goblin God had a bad feeling in his gut, but ignored it thinking ''what can seven halflings possibly do?''. He forgot at that moment that those seven halflings killed his strongest minion, the dungeon boss. The halflings ran all the way towards Lucrox which was about a mile from the dungeon entrance killing many goblins along the way. As soon as they got to the gate of Lucrox they threw their explosives blowing the gate to splinters. Lucrox was actually almost all goblins, and they did not need to feel bad about destroying the city, so they went on a rampage blowing up all the building they could. After blowing up at least a third of the city the halflings were finally cornered by the goblins. Alpha looked towards Delta who nodded with a smile as he turned around to light a fuse. The goblins cackled as they saw the halflings cornered gnashing their teeth at them. The halflings parted as they made way for their God and he glared at the halflings. In a shrill voice he said "What moves do you have now? You will all pay for your crimes and your dead bodies will be hung as a deterrent for future criminals" the Goblin God said maliciously. As he finished speaking a loud boom resounded as the buildings surrounding them crashed to the floor smashing tons of goblins and even a stray piece of cement smashed into the Goblin God knocking him out. The halflings laughed as they sprinted through the hole now open in the wall and ran towards the direction of Delphi wanting to make and escape. The Goblin God got up with a huge lump on his head as he screeched at the remaining goblins "BRING THEM BACK! I DON''T CARE IF THEY ARE ALIVE OR DEAD I JUST WANT TO SEE THEIR BODIES BACK HERE BY NIGHTFALL!!!" The goblins screeched as they began chasing after them with a newfound hatred growing in their hearts. "And you know the rest" Alpha said as he finished recounting his story to Able. 33 Able Vs. Goblin God 1 After the story Able allowed the halflings to rest for a few days before they began their attack on Lucrox. Able was a little excited now that he was attacking another dominion. Over the time they were resting Able went back to Delphi and summoned five hundred skeletons to help them take over Lucrox. Although the skeletons were weaker than the goblins, Able still felt like going to attack another city with only nine people was a bit much, thus he summoned some infantry. After a week of preparation they were now in front of Lucrox, preparing to attack them and capture the dominion. Since there was only a few thousand goblins left in the whole city they would be able to take it over easily. Able left Mary with the skeletons to capture the city while him and the halflings went to the dungeon to destroy the core. He wanted to capture the dominion after all, not just destroy it. After quickly passing through the dungeon floors they arrived at the boss room. Able turned to Alpha "Alright lets just defeat it together, because I am here we should be able to defeat it without any problems." The halflings nodded as they entered the boss room with their weapons drawn. Normally there would be some adventurers in the dungeon, but because of the massive destruction in Lucrox a week ago the adventurers felt a bad omen, and stopped diving into the dungeon retreating back to Zalfari. The door creaked open and they saw that the Hell Bear was not there, instead it was the Goblin God surrounded by some goblins. He was sitting on a throne smiling at them as two goblins shut the door behind them. "So you have finally come. I assume you are the one who ordered these halflings to destroy my city and kill my underlings?" The Goblin God''s high pitched voice sounded through the room. Hearing his voice Able secretly wondered if he was neutered. "Yes I ordered them to kill your dungeon boss." Able said wondering why he didn''t just re-summon it. "So are you that new God that made residence not to far away in that dinky village?" He said as he peered at Able. "Enough talk! This Dominion will be mine soon anyways, I have no need to discuss things with you!" Able was angry at the Goblin God now. How dare he call his dominion Dinky! The Goblin God laughed as he jumped off his throne pulling out his mace "We will see if you are right about that or not." He licked his lips as he said "Because once your protection leaves then I will flatten your Dominion!!!" he shrieked. Able did not respond and began attacking the Goblin God. He asked Genesis what Level he was and she told him he was Level-4. The Goblin God''s mace smashed against his sword causing Able''s arm to fling backwards. The Goblin was much stronger than he was. Able maneuvered around the Goblin God slashing through his countless defenses. The Goblin God shrieked as he jumped commanding the goblins to start attacking. The goblins complied as they picked up their weapons and charged towards the halflings and Able. With this increase in numbers the Goblin God began attacking Able again thinking he had the advantage. Even though Able was surrounded by Goblins on all sides he was still able to somehow stay alive. He would sometimes slash towards his back without even looking to kill goblins who were about to stab him, and was fighting the Goblin God at the same time. However he was not able to keep this up for long, and got a mace to the shoulder when his concentration was focused somewhere else. He flew back as his arm hung limply to the side unusable any longer. Able looked at his arm thankful it was his offhand, so he was still able to fight. The Goblin God cackled as he said "You are no match for me! Why bother coming to attack a dominion when you are too weak to capture its dungeon!" he laughed like the classical villain as he taunted Able. Able got up of the floor as he killed a few goblins and stared down the Goblin God. In a one versus one fight he would have been able to kill the Goblin God, but when he was surrounded he would be overwhelmed. He turned to the halflings and said "Use the explosives!". Hearing explosives both the goblins and the halflings ears perked up. Surprisingly they both followed the command as they began to hurl explosives at each other. 34 Able Vs. Goblin God 2 The Goblin God charged at Able, as explosions resounded from all sides. The Goblin God knew he would be unable to stop the goblins once they got permission to use their explosives, so his dungeon boss room would be turned to tatters after this, so he was extremely pissed off at Able. He slammed his mace down as Able dodged to the right slashing at his exposed flank. The Goblin God was still being helped out by the other goblins, so Able took a spear the the ribs, and had to retreat before he could do any major damage. He pulled out a health potion and chugged it down as he began to heal. The Goblin God did not let up and shouted "[Star Fall]" as his mace glowed with a blue light. Able went to parry the attack, but when his sword touched the mace it made an explosion flinging him backwards. He flipped in the air as he landed back on his feet facing the Goblin God. He charged at the Goblin God and jumped in the air. As he was falling down towards the Goblin God he spun using the momentum to increase his attack power and slashed towards the Goblin God. |The Ability [Rotational Slash] had been acquired| Able payed no attention to the prompt he heard and attacked the Goblin God. He could not let his concentration waver for a moment, or he would again be injured. The slash from his new skill flung the Goblin Gods mace to the side, and Able weaved his sword through his defenses and slashed him across the stomach creating a deep gash. The Goblin God screeched in pain as it again used [Star Fall] causing Able to back off not wanting to take that hit again. The Goblin held his stomach in pain as he reached behind his back and took out a giant black bomb. Even though he was mad that Able caused his goblins to use explosions that didn''t mean he wouldn''t want to use them! He threw the bomb at Able, and Able smashed it with the flat of its blade causing it to fly into a group of goblins blowing them to bits. He charged at the Goblin God who was now dumbfounded that his bomb didn''t work, and slashed at his extended arm taking off his hand. The Goblin God screeched as he pulled out another bomb dropping it to the floor while backing off. This one had a short fuse and blew up in two seconds blocking Able''s path to the Goblin God. After the explosion smoke filled his vision as he heard the Goblin God shrieking from the other side of the smoke. Since he did not know if there would be more explosives in the smoke he just picked up some from the dead goblins and started chucking them through the smoke. The Goblin God on the other side began to do the same thing and they began to have a snowball fight, wait no an explosive fight. The whole room was just a mess of people throwing explosives at each other at this point with Able and the halflings on one side, and the goblins on the other. After the explosions stopped an eerie quiet filled the boss room. Able signaled to the halflings as he charged out of the cover they were behind and locked onto the Goblin God. The Goblin God was currently hiding behind the throne he was sitting in earlier, shielding himself from the explosions. Able slashed at the throne bisecting it as the Goblin God backed away preparing his mace. The other goblins surrounded them while they fought attacking Able from the back. Able was now surrounded by Goblins, with the Goblin God providing the frontal assault. Able and the Goblin God began to fight against each other with Able slowly losing ground due to the Goblin''s strength, and his minions attacking Able''s back. Able''s leg was pierced from the back and he roared as he turned beheading the goblin who injured him. He cursed as his leg was now unfunctional and he would no longer be able to keep up with the Goblin God. The Goblin God laughed when he saw this and taunted "What are you gunna do, now that all your plans have failed?" He carried his mace as he walked over toward Able preparing to end him. Able was on the floor and looked up to the Goblin God and smiled "Well...not all of them". The Goblin''s face scrunched up in confusion as seven halflings dropped from the ceiling surrounding him. They activated their formation and quickly began to suppress him. He was now in an injured state, and was not as strong as normal, so their formation was now able to entrap him. unlike before. The other goblins wanted to help him out, but the formation was too tight, and they were unable to break it. The Goblin God got pierced from all sides causing him to spit out blood. He looked at Able, who was now limping towards him with anger on his face "How could a weak god like you-" He was unable to finish his sentence because Able''s sword pierced through his neck. All the goblins stopped attacking when their God died, and kneeled on the floor. They were now accepting Able as their new God and a prompt was heard at the same time. |The Dominion Lucrox has been Captured| |Level Up| A white light flashed through the whole city, and dungeon at this point and it converted the previous Goblin God''s shrine into his own, giving Able ownership of the whole dominion. Able was confused, and asked Genesis "Don''t I need to destroy the dungeon core before I am able to capture a dominion? And why did I level up?" "No, If you kill a God, you claim all their dominions, but if you destroy a dungeon core you only claim the dominion of that dungeon. And you Leveled up because you captured a dominion, but worry not because the cost to level up is still the same, it only increases if you purchase a Level up" She answered. 35 Gwen Nuevear Able left the dungeon with the halflings as the goblins followed him. He saw that they were not hostile, so he did not bother with them. They all walked towards Lucrox going to look for Mary. He was not in a hurry because Genesis said that this was now his dominion, so its inhabitants would not attack his assistant. After arriving at Lucrox he called Mary asking her where she was and she told him to head to one of the coffee shops, as she was there drinking coffee. He thought it funny that after such a hard fight he came to find Mary and she was just drinking coffee. ''Isn''t she already short? When her maturation period comes she will not grow at all!'' he thought thinking of the consequences of drinking coffee. He arrived at the coffee shop and saw Mary sitting at a table happily chatting with a busty secretary goblin. The Goblin Lady was actually tall for her race coming in at around 4''11''''. Her skin was all green, and her face could be said to be pretty. She had black hair that went down to her shoulders and massive- *cough*. Able sat down when he felt a murderous gaze coming from Mary and decided to stop "scouting out" the goblin girl. The Busty Goblin stood up and bowed as she said "Hello Master, this one is Gwen, and is ready to serve you". Able was confused, so he decided to ask some questions. "Are you not the Goblin God''s assistant?" "I was, but am no longer and would like to be your new assistant." she promptly replied. "Why would you forsake him after he has died?" Able probed, as he did not want a turncoat. "The Goblin God was very stupid, and greedy. He would not manage the dominion in a proper way and was running it into the ground. If you did not come and wipe him out, then its economy would have crashed in half a year at most. I never liked him, as he did not treat me well, so I have no lingering attachments" Gwen explained. "Okay, so what can you offer me? Why should I accept you?" he asked. As if already expecting this question she answered "Well first off I will be able to make this dominion very profitable. I am very good at managing business, if you let me offer my talents I will oversee this dominion for you, so you do not need to worry about it." Able nodded as he indeed did not want to look over all his dominions. "Alright I will accept you, but on the condition that even if I die you will not side with the enemy" he said. Gwen had a conflicting look on her face before she finally made a decision and nodded. "I want you to swear it" Able said, as swearing an oath in this world had huge meaning, because breaking them meant death. "I swear on my name Gwen Nuevear that I will serve you until death" She swore. Able nodded as he patted his leg and stood up "Well lets start fixing this dominion then". Able looked around and noticed there was another screen just like before except this one was on overview of Lucrox. The city was severely damaged and there was goblin corpses strewn about. "First things first let''s remove the dead bodies" Able said as he cleaned them all up through FP. He then fixed all the building that were destroyed by the halflings and even was a little angry at them for making him waste so much more FP. Looking at the inhabitants there was still around three thousand goblins still in the dominion. The dungeon though only had about five hundred. Seeing as how there was so little defense in the dungeon Able resummoned the Hell Bear, leaving it as the boss and summoned another five hundred goblins for defense. He did not summon a lot because there was already five spawners in the dungeon and they would restock over time. Gwen gave Able some advice on what to build, and purchase. He listened to her as her advice was sound and seemed like it would work out. He bought multiple tools the goblins didn''t have before, made factories for them to produce their explosives, and gave them seeds to grow food, as they were seriously lacking food. If they didn''t get any food then they would all starve the coming winter. He now had about five thousand inhabitants from across both dominions, so he decided to upgrade his shrine at Lucrox to increase the amount of FP gathered. He also summoned more goblins to increase to workforce of the city. 36 Status Check After summoning all the new inhabitants to the city there was at least four thousand goblins walking around the city. He decided to check his stats because he had just Leveled up. ====================================== Name: Able Age: 22 Race: Arch God Title: God of Thrill and Adventure Level: 3 Dominions: Delphi Village (Inhabitants: 1472) Lucrox (Inhabitants: 4382) Faith: 75 (Generate: 5400 Per Day) Trait: None Abilities: [Perish Passage] [Counter] [Rotational Slash] Assistants: 2 Subordinates: 0 Str: 50 Def: 20 Con: 40 Dex: 20 Int: 20 Wis: 10 Cha: 10 Per: 10 ======================================== He looked at his FP and realized just how broke he now was. He had spent all his FP on fixing up the new dominion leaving him with almost nothing left. His stats, however, made him smile because he already had a total of 180 status points at Level 3. For comparison, a normal person would only get 180 status points at level 10. He looked at Gwen''s stats as well, to see where she was at. He wanted to know whether or not Gwen was actually a good assistant. He heard from her that she was very good at regulating the dominions, but he wanted to check out her stats himself. ====================================== Name: Gwen Nuevear Age: 32 Race: Goblin Title: None Level: 10 Trait: [Advanced Intellect] Abilities:[Computation] [Regulation] Items: None Str: 0 Def: 0 Con: 0 Dex: 0 Int: 280 Wis: 0 Cha: 0 Per: 0 ======================================== Looking at her stats Able was stunned. She has had all her stats in Intelligence. Able also assumed this was the reason that the Goblin God did not like her. Her innate attribute was also Intelligence. He also wondered why, when the Goblin God had created her, did he not select another attribute, if he does not like smart people. However, this would be a mystery for the ages, because he will never get the answer. She was also only Level 10 but had two abilities, and both of them would help her in managing Dominion. He realized that he had just picked up a treasure. He would no longer have to think of what to buy for his dominion, and where to spend his FP because he can just give all the permissions to Gwen. Looking at her trait which was Advanced Intellect Able also assumed that she was on her way to becoming a Hob Goblin, which was much smarter than normal goblins. Hearing this Gwen''s jaw dropped. She had only joined him this day, and he had already trusted her enough to spend his FP. Although Mary could also spend his FP, she has never done it, because she had no need to. Now that he thought about it Mary was supposed to be looking after the dominion, but she never did her job. He looked at Mary out of the side of his eye, but when she looked over at him and tilted her head in confusion he quickly diverted his eyes. He made the other two sit at a table as he began to talk about what they should do next. "Should we start attacking the other dominions near us? Or should we first build up our own dominion, and Level up its inhabitants?" Able asked. "Sir if I may?" Able nodded, so Gwen began talking "I think we should first build up our own power because we will not be able to take down the other dominions as easily as we did this one. The Goblin God was a moron, and also a new God just the same as you". "Although the Goblin God had come three months before you, he had also not done a lot of improvements on his own dominion, leaving it easy to attack. The other Gods though are old hags and geezers, with the Pyramid of the Dead rumored to be over fifty years old, and the two queens are over a decade old already" Gwen explained to him. Able nodded as he heard what she was speaking of and turned to Mary seeking her opinion as well. She just looked at him and said: "Whatever master wants is best". Hearing this Able rolled his eyes as he began thinking of his progression direction. 37 Half a year later Six months had passed since Able had taken over Lucrox. The city was now bustling with people, and there were a lot more people in the city other than goblins. This was a huge change from what it was like before, with a population of over ninety percent goblins. The Dungeon had also been upgraded and now had twenty floors and two boss monsters. The Hell Bear was still there and on the deepest floor, there was a new boss called a Minotaur. This boss was Level twenty-five and held a giant sword with a reach of four meters. The Dungeon had attracted a lot of attention from adventurers because there were goblins and they are easy to kill. The has led to a branch of the Adventurers guild being set up in Lucrox, making the city even more prosperous. Able was satisfied with this development and looked at Delphi. His once little village was now a full grown city. It was bustling with people, and merchants were constantly arriving trying to purchase their one of a kind product corn. This is what has led to the city''s rapid influx of people. It attracted multiple immigrants and merchants who wanted to come to this up and coming city. Although this product had brought good, it had also brought the bad side society. There were three instances where people had tried to attack Delphi in order to get the Corn, but they had been repelled all three times. This had led to Delphi''s increase in reputation among the people, warding off other attempts of attacking the city. Delphi''s dungeon was now fifteen floors deep, with still the same boss monster, although it had been moved down to the tenth floor. He had also added treasure chests inside the dungeons, to entice more adventurers to delve within. Able had also Leveled up over the six months three times reaching Level six. His stats were as shown. ====================================== Name: Able Age: 23 Race: Arch God Title: God of Thrill and Adventure Level: 6 Dominions: Delphi Village (Inhabitants: 25k) Lucrox (Inhabitants: 42k) Faith: 132100 (Generate: 20000 Per Day) Trait: [Divine Protection] Abilities: [Perish Passage] [Counter] [Rotational Slash] [Gate] [Incendiary Slash] [Dominate Monster] [Phantasm Sword] Assistants: 2 Subordinates: 0 Str: 150 Def: 40 Con: 40 Dex: 20 Int: 20 Wis: 30 Cha: 20 Per: 10 ======================================== Able had bought some abilities over the six months to improve his strength. He bought [Gate], to teleport to places easier. This allowed him to teleport to a place he has been before once a day. [Incendiary Slash] and [Phantasm Sword] would help make his swordsmanship even stronger, with incendiary slash allowing him to attack with a flame on his blade, and [Phantasm Sword] made his sword make up to five other fake phantoms of his sword. He bought [Dominate Monster] to experiment whether or not he could capture outside monsters and bring them into his own dominion. He went out and captured some monsters then brought them back to his dominion, and they could enter both the dungeon and the dominion which Able found interesting. His new trait that he got at Level 5 was the most interesting. This [Divine Protection] made it so that all his inhabitants have 50 extra defense stats. He was surprised at this because he was not expecting to get such an overpowered trait. In total, this added over three millions status points! Although over the six months he did go to the mountains and train a bit, most of the time he was at either of his dominions, so he did not adventure a lot with Mary. Even though, she still Leveled up to Level 21 and went to get a D-Rank adventurer ID. Able told the halflings to go scout out the other dominions, and they went to the two dominions who were currently at war. They were the Ant Goddess and the Bee Goddess. The halflings had been attacked by the ants quite often while they were there, so Able had a bad opinion of them. The halflings went to The Hive because they were not welcomed by the ants. When they arrived at the Goddess of Honey''s dominion, they were allowed in. They produce honey there, which is purchased by a lot of people, due to its delicious taste. It was said to be way better than normal bee''s honey. Through the interactions, he had heard of from BAHT Able had decided that if he was to side with one of the Goddesses he would choose the Goddess of Honey because she seemed much more amiable than the other Goddess. As he was thinking over what has happened over the six months he felt someone jump on top of his back as she shouted: "Is it time now?". Able looked behind him and saw a girl with poofy hair, and a well-developed body. She was about twenty years old and had very beautiful features. This, of course, was Mary. Once she had hit her maturation period she had gone into hibernation, where her body began to catch up to her age. She now looked like a full-fledged adult, but she still had some of her childish habits and acted stubborn sometimes. 38 Johns Daily life ''Delphi has changed so much since it was such a small village. I remember when we did not even have a God, and we had to struggle to survive.'' John was thinking as he was wandering around the city looking for his house. He had just come back from the corn farms after a long day of work and wanted to cook this chicken that he had saved up for. He had wanted to surprise his wife with this chicken. As he was walking through the city a shopkeeper called out to him "Hey John! You lost again?" John turned to the shopkeeper with a smile "No, I am just out for a walk! I needed to get some fresh air!" he said trying to hide the fact that he was lost. "Oh! Well that makes sense! I just want to let you know that your house is that way!" He said pointing towards the direction John had just been walking from. John had a stunned look on his face before he laughed as he rubbed the back of his head and said "I just remembered I forgot something" he turned around as he said goodbye to the shopkeeper and again began searching for his house. Everyone in the city knew John because his sense of direction was notorious for being the worst. He was considered as one of the tourist sights of the city. John was walking down the street as he looked at the surrounding buildings not recognizing any of them. He sighed because now that the city had gotten bigger it was even harder to find his house. He walked until he arrived at the entrance to the city and stopped as he rubbed his head in exasperation. He realized he was again going to have to find the village chief, who was now the mayor, to help him find his way back home. He turned around and looked back towards the city. The countless streets looked as if they were taunting him laughing at his predicament. He sighed as he said "Now which way is the mayor''s house?" Eventually after asking many bystanders he arrived in front of the mayors house. The guards who saw him let him in with a knowing smile. He entered and sat on a couch waiting for the mayor to come meet him. He had done this countless times, so he knew what to expect. After a few minutes the mayor arrived and sighed as he looked at John. "I am starting to wonder whether or not letting you work on the farm is worth the trouble" he said as he shook his head. John patted his chest as he said "I am one of the best workers out there. You can hardly find someone as good as me, so there is no need to worry about me not working hard" The mayor sighed as he said under his breath"Well I do suppose you are right, but I think I should hire a permanent guide for you in order to relieve some of my stress". The mayor called in one of his attendants and told him to escort John back home. The man nodded as he began to lead John towards his house. "Honey, I''m home!" John said as he opened the door. From inside he heard a woman''s voice that said "Oh? I''ll be just a minute" as he heard a few thumps before a woman appeared in a doorway. She smiled as she said "Welcome home!" she began walking forwards as she ran into a table. She knocked a bit of wind out of herself as she laughed and said "Ah, there is a table there". Of course she was blind, and could not see. John smiled and said "Guess what I got today?" as he held the chicken in his hands. The woman thought for a bit before replying "Is it a chicken?" John was stumped as he said "How did you know?" The woman smiled and said "Lucky guess!" she did not want to tell him that every time he brought a surprise it was a chicken. "Well let us have a feast today!" John said as he went into the kitchen to prepare his chicken. The woman nodded and ran into a few walls before she too walked into the kitchen. They both prepared the food with John doing the more dangerous stuff and Kate, his wife, doing the easier jobs. The finished preparing the food and ate dinner happily chatting at the table discussing their day. "You would not believe what happened to me today!" Kate said as a little bit of anger appeared on her face. "They moved the fence that was in front of our house again! I ran into it three times before I figured out they moved it!" Kate said as she tried to stab the chicken on her plate missing every time. "Ah I agree they seemed to have moved everything around the city. I can never find out where our house is because they always move stuff around" John said with an annoyed tone. Little did both of them know that they were both dunces and nothing was moved at all. 39 New Subordinate All of Able''s main group of people had gathered and they were all waiting for him to begin with the purchase of a new subordinate. He realized that he only had just over 100k FP, so he could either attempt to select a Pre-made Subordinate, or he could just bet on his luck with the Gachapon. ==========Dungeon========== ~Subordinate~ ?Select Pre-made (100,000 FP, base cost) ?Gachapon (100,000) ?Self-Construct (1 Million FP, base cost) ========================== They had already discussed before, and they all decided to roll for the Gachapon. With this they had a chance of getting a higher level Subordinate, while with selecting a Pre-Made with his FP the max he could get was a Level 5. Able selected the Gachapon and all the people in the God space became tense. A Gachapon appeared before them, and inside of it was countless balls with miny figurines of different subordinates you could get. There was Dragons, Orcs, Golems, and countless other types of monsters inside. The balls began to move around and mix up. They were jumping around inside the machine, until eventually it began to settle down and one of the balls rolled out of the bottom. Able picked up the ball and saw a tree that was shaped as a man. Able immediately realized that he had got a treant! After he looked at the ball it disappeared as a white light flashed and the Treant grew until it became ten feel tall. It towered over the rest of the group looking as if it could flatten them with a stomp. The Treant looked down at Able and said "Master, This one is ready to serve" as he placed his hand over his chest. Able nodded and opened the Treant''s stats to see what he had won from the Gachapon. ====================================== Name: Enu Diya Age: 1025 Race: Treant Title: Treant Protector Level: 10 Trait: [Seedling Rebirth] Abilities: [Overgrowth] [Parasitic Spore] [Leech Seed] Items: [Rune Stone] Str: 100 Def: 40 Con: 50 Dex: 0 Int: 0 Wis: 50 Cha: 0 Per: 80 ======================================== Able looked at Enu''s stats and was very happy with them. He had also come with three abilities, and a trait! The trait [Seedling Rebirth] allowed him to revive even if only one seedling of his body remains. Normally Subordinates, and Assistants can not revive, so this was a very overpowered ability. Even better was that Enu had come with an Item, that increased his wisdom by 50 status points. Able was satisfied with what he had got from the gachapon. |Dungeon EXP Unlocked| Hearing this Able was confused, as he did not understand what it meant. Genesis answered him after he asked and said "This means that your inhabitants may gain experience, when they kill monsters from your own dungeons". Able was surprised at this, but was also very happy. You have to understand that most of his inhabitants were Level 1, and if he allowed them to gain EXP from his dungeons, then they will level up very fast. He looked towards Gwen, then told her his idea of having the Inhabitants to mandatory training in the dungeons to increase their levels. Gwen thought for a bit before replying "There may be some backlash, but so long as no outsiders are required like the merchants or travelers, then there should be no major problems" she told him. Able nodded as he said "I think I should also allow them to sell any monster drops for their own money, and allow them to keep any treasures they find as an incentive. Should we also make the Army of my Dominions join in?" he asked. Able had purchased a lot of more powerful inhabitants to increase the power of his dominion, and now had a five thousand man army in Delphi, and a ten thousand man army in Lucrox. "The army should join in, but they will need to take shifts, and we should also increase their pay because this is a lot of extra work for them" Gwen said. "Okay I will leave all the details to you, but I want the inhabitants to start training in the dungeons by the end of this week" he told her. He was not too worried about wasting a lot of FP on the monsters they killed because he purchased a lot of spawners, and they now summoned monsters for free. "It will be done master" Gwen said as he put her arm over her chest in salute. 40 Making Plans Alpha began speaking of what he had learned from his time at the two goddesses dominions. "Of the two goddesses the Bee queen is definitely the one who is most friendly of the two without a doubt. The ants who serve the Ant goddess will kill other living beings on sight within a certain range of their Anthill" Alpha said. "We traveled to the Hive, and they were welcoming to all peoples besides the ant because they are enemies with them. I do not think we will be able to take out either dominion because we do not have enough strength. From what we have gathered the Goddess of Honey''s dungeon has thirty-five levels and two bosses." "The first boss is around Level 15 and resides on floor twenty, while the second boss is rumored to be at Level 30 and is on the last floor." Alpha explained. "They Goddess of Honey also has an army of around one hundred thousand with all of them being at Level 3 or above" He explained in trepidation. Hearing this Able was shocked to the core and Mary let out a gasp of shock. These decade-old powerhouses were nothing to joke about. "The Queen of the Hill is said to be of equal power to the Goddess of Honey, so we can assume that they have around the same of everything. However, when we were trying to sneak into the hill, we noticed that they have two types of ants that patrol outside. There are giant major''s who are generally around Level 10, and there were worker ants who are all below Level 10." Alpha explained the situation of the ants. "We were only able to get a quick peek into the hill before we were spotted and had to escape. The hill has one entrance and is patrolled constantly by ants. Inside is just giant catacombs where the ants live." Able asked "Well did you see their shrine? It can''t be hidden now can it?" "Yes, their shrine is a straight drop from the top of the hill and is in the dead center of their dominion" Alpha replied. Able nodded as he said, "Okay, so do you have any plans on what we should do?" Alpha thought for a bit before slowly replying "I think that we should choose a side and help them eliminate the other. We are not strong enough to wipe out either of them, let alone both" Alpha said as he sighed. "And I would assume that your choice is the Goddess of Honey?" Able said. Alpha nodded as he said "Yes, they have already been fighting for over a decade, so they should be tired of it already. The Goddess of Honey should accept our proposition as long as we provide the right terms" "Well, what do you think we should offer? You said that we can not take over either of the dominions, so what can we provide her for assistance?" Able asked. Able nodded and said "Alright lets go with that then. We need to get on her good side first, so she doesn''t expect us of anything. Does anyone have any ideas on how we should form a relationship?" "We could trade with her? She has honey, and we have corn. This will benefit us both, so I don''t see why we shouldn''t" Gwen said. "Alright then we will trade with her at first, but when we finally cooperate what should the conditions be?" Able asked as he rubbed his chin. "She will definitely want the dominion of the Queen of the Hill, as she has been fighting her for over ten years," Alpha said. Able nodded as he said "Alright let''s assume she wants the dominion more than anything else. I will let her take that, but we also need to gain from this. What else is there besides the dominion to take? Their inhabitants?" "We can take them and put them to work in our dominion," Gwen said. "A lot of them will die during the war, but if we still get fifty thousand ant workers it will be worth it, and if we get any of their majors then I can use my [Dominate Monster] and then I can use them for my own Army!" Able said excitedly. 41 Gaining a foothold The halflings were sent to go try and contact a merchant who works under the Goddess of Honey and try to get a trading deal with them. This way they would be connected to the Goddess, and garner her attention after some time, while at the same time they would also not be directly seeking her out. Able wanted the Goddess of Honey to investigate them first. This way she felt she had the upper hand in the deals they would be making and would feel much more secure about the whole thing. This was all part of Able''s plan to eventually overthrow the Queen of the Hill from her current position, as he needed the Goddess of Honey''s help to do it. Able was currently back in Zalfari. He wanted to try and get a foothold in this city, as it was the nearest one to both his dominions. He was with Mary and he was looking around trying to find somewhere he could be influential. They were walking down the street looking at all the shops and people selling goods. There were people shouting trying to attract customers to their store yelling out their deals. Able sighed in frustration looking at all of this. They were so oblivious to the inner workings of the city. "What about taking control of one of the powers already here?" Mary asked him in confusion as she evaded some street peddlers. "Well, I don''t see who we should try and win over." Able said "There is the Baron of the city, there is the leader of the adventurer guild, there are the Flash Mercenaries and a few other mercenary teams," said Able as he began to think of the possible candidates. "We should take control over the whole city instead," Mary said as she was eating a lollipop. "We will eventually, but I want to do it over time, so there are fewer suspicions from the Ruler of whatever kingdom we are in" Able sighed. He knew almost nothing about the current world he was living in, and this drastically affected his current movements. He did not know if he was in a kingdom, or if there was just a bunch of cities and dominions scattered about. "Alright, then let us first take over one of the Mercenary bands, and have them unify all the mercenaries and adventurers," Able said as he rubbed his chin. Mary agreed with him because she had full trust in him. They began walking towards the adventurer guild, so they could ask for information on the whereabouts of the mercenary bands. They would usually take over a building and use it as a base, or have a tavern as their base of operations. They headed through the streets and arrived at the adventurer guild in a short while. They went inside and sat down ordering a few drinks, and a slice of pie for Mary. There was currently a big burly man who was standing on a table telling a story of one of his adventures capturing the attention of all the other adventurers in the room. Hearing just the end of his story made Able know it was either Bull Sh*t or it was exaggerated to the max. "How much was the reward?" One of the adventurers got up and asked with his eyes glittering in admiration. The man had a smug smile on his face as he puffed up his chest and said "I would have gotten fifty gold coins, but I have to pay ten percent of my earnings to the Anchor Mercs" the man said. Hearing this Able shifted through his memories before he recalled that this was the third strongest Mercenary band in the city. They had a big reputation and were considered as the most respected Mercenary band due to their protection of their members. There was one time when one of its members got his arm chopped off in a scuffle with another group of adventurers and the Anchor Mercenaries eliminated that group of adventurers. After this happened few people dared to mess with the members of the Anchor Mercenaries. 42 Anchor Mercenaries Able was annoyed with the man because he drank for another six hours before he finally had enough and decided to head back. Although he was annoyed he had to give it to the man, He did know how to drink. The man left the adventurer guild and Able began to tail him with Mary. He was not very observant of his surroundings, because he figured that no one would mess with one of the Anchor Mercenaries. He tripped and stumbled through the streets as he began to make it back to their base. It took quite a while for them to get there because the man took a few wrong turns on the way back causing Able to want to strangle him. He finally arrived at their base, which was a large courtyard with guards posted all around. It was very well defended for a mercenary group which made Able start to wonder if they had a powerful backing. ''Well, no matter! They will belong to me soon enough'' He thought as he shrugged. Now that they arrived at the base he circled it looking at all of their defenses. He wanted to meet the Boss of their Mercenary band in person as that would be easiest. He could make him under his control with an ability, or he could just kill him and take over that way. Whatever worked best. After finding a hole in their defense Able slipped through along with Mary. They flashed over the walls and landed with a light *thud* on the other side. Able scanned the courtyard and began heading towards the most prominent building because it was rule number one that the bosses resided in the biggest buildings. They ran through the courtyard sneaking around the buildings and hiding from the patrolling guards. When they arrived at the building Able climbed up to the balcony on the second floor. He shushed Mary as he peered inside. A man was sitting at a desk filling out papers. He looked very refined and was wearing glasses and had shoulder-length hair. After writing a bit he tapped the pen on the desk as he sunk into thought. Able thought he found the right guy, as he looked like he was doing important paperwork. He did not know who the leader of the Mercenary band was, but if he was wrong he would just ask this guy as he looked important. He opened the door to the balcony and rushed in with Mary and he covered the man''s mouth preventing him from screaming for help. Able whispered in his ear "If you so much as raise your voice I will instantly kill you. I am going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them. Do you understand?" The man nodded, but there was no fear in his eyes. Able let him go and the man turned around to face him and asked: "Who are you and why are you here?". "You seem to have not understood. I am the one asking questions. Now, are you the leader of the Anchor Mercenaries?" Able asked. "That''s great!" Able said as he clapped his hands. "So, do you either want to be under my control from now on or do you want me to take over this mercenary band by force?" he said, as he was not very good with discussions. Hearing this the man was stunned, and it was evident on his face. "I don''t think you understand the magnitude of the words you have just spoken," the man said as anger began to show on his face. "Oh, I do!" Able said as he stared down the man. "I am ready to kill you and take over this Mercenary band if you do not comply. This is a good deal for you being able to serve a God. You will be able to grow to new heights with this". The anger slowly receded from his face as he looked at Able. "You said you are a God? Where is your dominion?" he was now curious about this deal, because if you got to work under a God, as long as your God did not fail you were bound to grow in the future. "Oh? You have decided to accept?" Able asked him. "I have not accepted yet I just want to know the details!" the man roared at him. Seeing this guy yelling at Able Mary began to draw her sword but Able held her back. "Okay! Well, I am the God of Thrill and Adventure and my dominions are Delphi and Lucrox." Able said with a smile. Hearing Lucrox made the Mercenary leader blanch. He knew that another god once ruled that dominion, and if what this guy was telling him was right then that meant *gulp*. The man gulped as he looked at Able with a newfound respect. 43 Syme "Okay first off, this is not a cooperation. You will be serving me, so it will be you becoming my henchmen" Able said. The Mercenary leader paused for a moment before he nodded. Able smiled and said "Okay good. The reason I have come all the way out here to talk to you is because I want to take control of this city. I am planning to unite all the Mercenary groups starting with yours forming one large Mercenary group." "You will be in charge of the Mercenary group because you are the first to join. Once we unite all the Mercenary groups then I will pressure the leader of the city, and he will also join me. If he does not well then I will have to find a replacement." Able did not want to kill the leader of the city, because he did not know what problems would occur, but it might be necessary. "How do I know all of what you are telling me is the truth?" The Mercenary Leader asked. Able turned to Mary with a questioning look. She shrugged at him and he turned back to the Mercenary Leader and grabbed him by the shoulder as he used [Gate] teleporting them back to his dominion. Just seeing Able''s use of [Gate] already confirmed his status to the Mercenary Leader. They arrived in Delphi atop one of the walls overlooking the city. The city was quiet as it was still night out, but there was still a few people walking about. Able teleported them to the shrine and showed the Mercenary Leader. The leader was stunned because inside was a picture with a likeness of Able, so he knew that Able was telling the truth. Seeing his reaction Able nodded and went back through the [Gate] arriving back at the Mercenary base. "So, do you accept my proposition?" Able asked him. The Mercenary Leader knelt on the floor and saluted. "This one is ready to serve," He said full of conviction. "Good!" Able said "I now want you to start absorbing the smaller mercenary groups first. Make sure not to cause too much of a commotion, or the other Mercenary groups might, or the local influences might catch on. I do not want to fight them as of yet." Able did not know who the strongest person in this city was, nor who owned it, so he wanted to tread with care. Able turned around and said, "Oh and what is your name?" "This one''s name is Syme," He said still kneeling. Able nodded and walked through the [Gate] back to Delphi. Once he was gone the man got up from the floor. He looked to where Able disappeared and determination flashed across his eyes as he turned and prepared to accomplish his tasks. ---??? POV "Have the preparations been made?" a raspy voice said as rolled over the man kneeling before him. The speaker was wearing a black cloak that covered his body only leaving his withered hands visible. The hood of his cloak hung over his face casting a shadow masking all his facial features. "I do not want your excuses, I only want results. Your time is running out. You have two more years, or we will miss the deadline. Get it done." The man in the cloak said with mild anger in his voice. The man nodded as sweat began to drip down his face. He saluted before he walked out of the room with the cloaked man. He did not fear many things, but the man in the Cloak was one of them. He always hated reporting to the cloaked man because of the intense atmosphere that always hung around him. You could feel his murderous aura even when he was not expressing it. The man walked to his room and picked up a crystal ball. He began chanting as the ball shimmered before a picture of a man appeared on its surface. If Able was there he would be surprised, because the man in the crystal ball was the man he previously beat up after he attempted to take Mary. The man on the surface smiled in flatter as he said: "Oh, what do you need your Lordship?". "Cut the crap, Sylvester! Why has Zalfari not fallen under our control yet!?" The man was mad because he took all the blame when his subordinates did not finish their tasks. "Well you see I almost have it taken care of, I just need to unify the mercenaries and a few local powerhouses," Sylvester said while he scratched the back of his head. "I do not want your excuses, I only want results!" The man roared as he copied the same line the cloaked man said to him. Sylvester quivered as he nodded and said: "It will be done within three months, your Lordship". 44 Business deals Able woke up because Mary just kicked him off the bed. She did not do it on purpose, but because she moves in her sleep. Able originally wanted to get Mary her own bed after she reached her maturation period, but she began tearing up once he brought it up, so he conceded and let her sleep in the same bed with him. He rubbed his head as he smiled wryly at Mary. Just as he began to search through the Faith Shop for something to eat for breakfast he received a [Call] from Alpha. "Hello? What do you have to report?" Able said as he answered the [Call]. "We have made a connection with the trading company that works under the Goddess of Honey. They are called the Honey Trading Company. We have gathered that although normal bee''s eat honey, these ones also eat normal food, so the corn was a big hit over here" Alpha reported. "Your progress is good. How much did they ask for?" Able asked. "They want at least 500 units of Corn a month, and they will trade it for 750 units of Honey" Alpha reported the measurements to him. "You may proceed with the deal, I will designate someone to transport the food to them every month. You guys now need to start gathering more intel on the Queen of the Hill. What you provided before is insufficient, go back and get more." Able told them. Alpha agreed over the call before they hung up. 500 units of Corn would be very easy to get because with Enu''s [Overgrowth] he can start mass producing corn. Able was currently deep in thought but was awoken by Gwen who was calling him. He looked up and saw Gwen standing there holding her signature clipboard. She looked at him quizzically and said "There is someone who wishes to meet you. He says that you have met before and has something he wants to talk about." "Well, what does he want to see me for?" Able asked in confusion. He does not remember anyone who would be in Delphi that he would be speaking with. Gwen paused for a bit before replying "I think it is best that you find out yourself". Able nodded and got up as Gwen led him out of the God space and towards one of the restaurants in Delphi. This was the most luxurious restaurant that Delphi currently had. It was five stories tall and was called Sunset. Gwen led him to the fifth floor and stopped outside of a room. Able looked at her for a moment before he knocked and walked inside. He did not wait for the person to come to greet him and directly entered. Inside was an obese man sitting down at a table struggling to get up from his chair as he tried to rise and greet Able. Able was stunned at the sight. It was the egotistic merchant! Able waved him off "Do not worry about it, I have long forgotten" The merchant sighed in relief as he sat back down into his chair after Able took a seat. "This one is Blaine, from the Cavendish Trading Company. I asked you here today to see if we could cooperate." Able nodded and signaled him to continue. "Well, my group has noticed that your city has come up with another rare commodity and wanted to know if you would be willing to sell them to us?" He said as he rubbed his hands together. Able had a confused look on his face because the only thing his Dominion produced that was rare was the corn. He looked to the merchant and asked: "What is it that you want to purchase?" Blaine looked at him before slowly replying "Well you see...your assistant Mary was walking around the city once, and I saw her eating some type of food. I asked her about it, and she claimed it was called a lollipop. I purchased some from her because I had never seen any before. They later became very sought after by children from the rich families". Able was stunned after hearing this from the merchant. He had come here to discuss selling lollipops! Able felt a headache coming on and sighed as he looked at the merchant. "How much are you going to buy each lollipop for?" he asked. "Do not worry, this one would dare not try and rip you off. I will purchase each one at a gold each!" He said as he patted his chest. Able was stunned after hearing this because each lollipop was only 2 FP! This was a great deal! He accepted the deal and they agreed to sell 5,000 every month. 45 A Commotion Able was walking through the streets of his city deep in thought. He was wondering what other commodities, from his world, could he buy from the Faith Shop and be sold here. He realized that he had just stumbled upon a gold mine. He previously did not think much about the Corn being very profitable, because he noticed that other food from Earth was here, like watermelon, grapes, and cinnamon buns. If he was able to find more things that are profitable he can make a lot more money. The only downside to this was that he had to waste FP, which was very important to the expansion of his dominion. He also wanted the money though, as that is what makes the world turn. He needed both for his dominion, so he was in a predicament. He decided to find stuff from his world to sell but to do it in moderation as FP was crucial for him. He heard a commotion from in from of him causing him to awake from his thoughts. There was a crowd surrounding the entrance of the city whispering to each other as they pointed. They were looking at some miners, who were currently being supported by others due to injuries. The miners had massive gashes on their bodies and were unconscious due to blood loss. "Look at that. What do you think happened to them?" one of the people said. "I''d say that they got into a fight. And they seem to have lost very badly" a short dwarf said as he rubbed his beard. "I beg to differ. I think the mine just collapsed on them causing all those injuries" "Are you stupid? There are slash marks on them, and if that happened how do you explain the black stuff on their bodies? I think they met some strong monster on their way to the mine in the mountain." A few of the miners had missing limbs or had this pitch-black mark on their bodies that looked like it was slowly corroding away at their body. They were groaning in pain as they were passed out, they looked terrible. Able walked up to the miners as he looked at their wounds. The surrounding people said "God" as they knelt on the floor. They still worshiped Able, so they always made sure to show their faith whenever he was around. Although Able originally felt very awkward whenever they did this, he slowly got used to it, before it no longer bothered him. Able did not pay attention to the gawkers and asked the miners with mild anger in his voice "What happened?" he was angry that people still dared to injure his citizens. One of the less injured miners stepped forward as he said "God please get revenge for us. Our brothers...they were killed!" he said with anger evident on his face. "Okay, slow down. Come with me first, and let''s get the others to the hospital, lest they die from their injuries." Able said. Able took the miner into the God space, so he could talk with him in private. He did not want the citizens to be even more afraid than they already were. He also got Gwen, because he had a feeling that this would be important. He did not bother Mary, because she was sleeping and he didn''t want to wake her up. Most of the time she did not have an opinion either, she always agreed with Able. They sat at a table across from each other with Able and Gwen on one side, and the man on another. Although Able was called a "God" he almost never acted like one. He did not sit in a throne overlooking the man and just sat at an equal level as him, so they could talk. He waited for the man to calm down before he asked: "So, can you tell me what happened?". He wanted the man to be able to accurately tell him what had happened, so he waited for him to recuperate himself. 46 Catastrophe in the Mine 1 "How is it looking David?" The miner asked as he peered in the direction of the hole that was just made. "I don''t know. I can''t see a damn thing" David said as he shook his head and sighed. The miners were digging like usual until David stumbled upon some black iron. This was a very rare and precious ore that could be sold for a lot of money. In excitement, they all began to start digging up out the ore with renewed vigor clearing out much more ore than usual. After about four hours of digging into the wall and gathering some black iron, they suddenly breached the wall opening a cavern that was on the other side. They were currently looking inside to see if it was safe because there were other monsters out there that like to make tunnels, and if they were currently living inside then it would be dangerous. "Let''s check it out then, there is no noise coming from inside, so there probably isn''t anything living in there. They would have heard us mining and already come to check us out." Another miner said. The miners agreed and they slowly began to proceed through the hole into the cavern. There were about fifteen miners in total that entered into the cavern, getting ready to search for some more ore, and see if this place would be a good spot to mine. David threw a light forward so they could see how big the room was. The light illuminated the room casting eerie shadows across the walls. David looked around a little spooked and saw the cavern they were currently in was huge. It was at least 100 meters across, and 50 meters wide. It was sort of circular in shape, but there was spots that jutted out, and it had spikes all around messing up the shape. In the middle of the cavern was a giant fissure that reached down into the depths. The miners looked around and saw there was black iron all around the cavern sparkling while in the walls. They gasped as the began to chatter. This amount of black iron would make their city rich, and they would get a cut for finding this lucrative spot in the first place. Even though the cut was small, to them it was still a huge amount. Seeing as how the whole cavern was dotted with black iron David lead the miners towards the ravine to look down inside and see what ore was inside there. Normally the more precious ores are developed under extreme conditions, so there should be better ores inside the ravine. As they walked closer towards the ravine they could feel their hearts being grasped, as if something was squeezing them. It was not very painful but felt as if someone was holding their life in their hands. This caused them to stop as they hurriedly retreated. A few of them gasped as they clutched their chests as they gasped due to this uncomfortable feeling. One of the older miners faces even paled as he struggled for breath. "I have no idea, but I think there is an extremely strong presence inside that ravine, and just its aura is enough to harm us." Said another as he wiped the sweat that dripped from his brows. Most of these miners were Level one, with a few being Level two and three. For a monster to be able to harm them with just its aura, it meant that it had to be in its mid-forties, if not higher. "Do you think we should go back and report this to his majesty?" one of the miners said as he gulped looking towards the ravine while clutching his chest. A few of the miners nodded, but a majority of them had a greedy glint in their eyes. As it is said, men die for money while birds die for food. They wanted to go find whatever ore was inside the ravine, so they could get a cut of that money too. "Let us check what is in the ravine first, and then let''s go back and report to God. It''s not like the monster inside knows we are here. It would have come out to kill us already if it did. We just need to take a quick peek, and then we will get out." One of the braver miners said. A few nodded along with him until a majority of the miners agreed to take a quick peek inside the ravine, before coming back. "Well you guys can go, I will stay here because I don''t think my heart can handle it," said the old man. "I will stay to take care of Ben, you guys can check the ravine," said David, as he did not want to risk his life for money. "Alright we will check the ravine, but you guys won''t get a cut of what is inside, because you did not go with us," The brave miner said. 47 Catastrophe in the Mine 2 The miners slowly crept towards the fissure as the grasp on their heart got greater with each step. It was not unbearable, but the thought that someone had the power to end your life with a thought caused all of them to sweat in fear, but sadly their greed was greater than their fear. The eventually arrived at the edge of the ravine with David and the old man watching from behind in suspense. As they arrived at the edge of the ravine all of the miners slowly looked over the edge. As they looked down they heart a loud grumble causing them to scream and jump back. The sprinted back towards David and the old man in terror. When the arrived they looked back to notice one of the miners still standing there holding his stomach. "What is wrong? Why haven''t you run away! We need to leave or we will all be eaten!" said one of the miners in a hushed voice. "I''m sorry I get queasy when I am scared." He said as he clutched his stomach as it again grumbled. Hearing this all the miner''s faces went from terror to anger. "What the f*ck Richard? Why didn''t you tell us that it was you! I nearly crapped my pants, and then you would not be the only one who was feeling queasy!" said one of the miners as he went and smacked Richard in the head. The rest of the miners also gave out some grumbles as they again went to the fissure. This time they were less scared because they had already done it before and went to look inside the ravine. They peered over the edge and saw the ravine reach into the darkness until they could no longer see. The bottom of the ravine was unable to be seen even with the light, so one of the miners decided to throw down a light. "Are you stupid!!" shrieked the other miners. There was a deadly monster down there and he just threw something inside. The miners face paled as the realization hit him and they all looked down the ravine with while faces. The light bounces off the walls as it made its descent into darkness. They followed the light with their eyes in fear of what might happen. However, their fears were unneeded because the light safely made it to the bottom of the ravine without attracting any monsters. The miners let out a collective sigh of relief as they glared at the miner who threw the light down. The looked inside the ravine and saw that the walls did indeed have more black iron on them. Although this place seemed deadly it had a lot of resources they could mine. "Did anyone see any other ore besides black iron when the light was falling down?" the brave miner asked as he looked at the miners beside him. "Yeah I think I saw some Dark sapphire I think," a miner said as he was trying to remember. Their attention was mostly focused on the light, so not many people paid attention to the walls. "Wait look at that!" one of the miners shouted as he pointed to the bottom of the ravine. Following his finger, the other miners noticed that the light illuminated a sword that was impaled into the floor at the bottom of the ravine. It was a Japanese style katana, that was pitch black. Surrounding the sword was what seemed like waves of black water. It rippled around the sword contaminating the area around it causing it to also become pitch black. The miners gulped as they saw this katana greed filling their eyes. They could tell from all the way on top of the ravine that this katana was a very well made one, and would be worth a lot of money. The light slowly began to fizzle out as the miner''s sight of the katana disappeared. The looked at each other before one of them said: "I think we should go down and get that katana". Another miner nodded as he said, "Yeah, I don''t think there is a monster down there, I think that the sword is just releasing an aura in order to scare away any people trying to take it." A few of the miners back out as they said "I don''t think it is safe we will wait up here. You guys can go without us". 48 Catastrophe in the Mine 3 The miners one by one started climbing down the rope to descend into the ravine. Although only one person was needed to grab a katana, they decided not to share the rewards with anyone that did not descend along with them. The miners had to gather up their courage as they slowly climbed their way down the ravine. The deeper they got the more they felt the presence of the sword leaking into the surroundings. It felt as if a ghost was currently gripping at their throats making it hard for them to breath. All of them began to shiver the lower they got, but they still pushed through in order to get to the katana. After the long and strenuous climb, the miners finally arrived at the bottom of the ravine. They were shivering due to the aura the katana was leaking. The waves of black essence that poured off of the sword practically foretold of the chaos that would ensue after you grasped it. "This seems to be some kind of legendary sword?" one of the miners said in awe as he was looking at the katana. "Yeah, it must be. Just being near it makes me shiver from fear. I can''t imagine what it would be like if the owner was wielding it." the brave miner said as he shivered. Although he normally put up a brave front, he too was scared after climbing down the ravine. The sword was just too eerie. The miners did not move closer to the sword due to fear and just stood at the bottom of the ravine watching it from a distance. As they were watching they jumped due to a shout from above "Are you guys okay? Nothing bad happened to you right?". The miners clutched their chests due to the heart attack the unexpected shout gave them. The brave miner looked up as he shouted back "Yeah, we are at the bottom. We just need to grab the sword, then we will head back up". "Alright hurry up! This place does not feel right. I think we should leave as soon as possible" shouted the miner from above. "Roger" The brave miner shouted. He then looked towards the other miners as he said: "Well now someone go grab the sword, so we can head back up as soon as possible." The miners looked at each other before one stepped up and patted the brave miner on the back and said "Great idea! Now just run over there real quick and grab it. We will be waiting here for you." The brave miner blanched as he looked at the others. "I don''t think just one of us should grab it. Then it wouldn''t be fair, as that person deserves more credit than the rest. The reward would be rewarded in majority to him" he said as he shook his hands not wanting to get the katana by himself. "Oh, that''s okay! I think we all agree that you deserve a bigger reward because you are the one that led us all here. Without you we would not have climbed down at all" said the miner as he looked towards the others for encouragement. "Yea, don''t feel bad about getting a bigger reward than us. We think you, as the leader deserve it" pitched in another miner. The others voiced their agreement trapping the brave miner in at the same time. The brave miner looked at the miners with wide eyes not believing that they were using his previous meritorious deeds to try and make him go and grab that dangerous looking katana. He gulped as he realized that the miners all looked at him in expectation wanting him to go grab the sword. He cursed under his breath as he yelled "Fine! I will go...By myself...all alone...into danger...without any friends..." he said as he tried to guilt trip the other miners. However, they were firm in their decision and did not budge. When he realized they had committed to making him go grab the sword he sighed as he slowly began to edge his way to the sword. He began to push his way through the waves of darkness radiating off the sword. He felt as if the waves were propelling him while drawing him in at the same time. He had never felt anything like it and began to walk in a sort of trace until he finally arrived in front of the sword. It was stabbed inside a stone pedestal with half of its blade stuck inside. The blade was pitch black with a red line going from the tip of the sword to the hilt on both sides. The hilt was also pitch black, but it had a red grip wrapped around it. The red was the same color as blood looking like it was dyed by the blood of past victims. The brave miner gulped as he looked at the sword. He was feeling such intense fear right now that he was literally shaking in his boots. He wanted nothing more than to run back to the other miners, but something was compelling him to grab the sword. 49 Catastrophe in the Mine 4 The brave miner grasped the sword and pulled it out of the stone. The sword rang as it exited the stone echoing through the ravine. The brave miner shuddered as he held the sword in his grasp. His eyes went blank as the sword began to hum. He began to groan as his body shook his eyes rolled into the back of his head. The miners gasped as they saw this. They knew that he was in trouble, and the sword was what caused it. They gulped as they watched him shake while holding the sword. Although he was shaking his hand never left the sword, his grip was firm as if he was holding on for dear life. Slowly his shaking began to subside until it eventually stopped. The Ravine became an eerie quiet as not a sound was heard, not even the miner''s breaths. Suddenly the black waves surrounding the sword began to be drawn in getting sucked into the sword. It was collecting all the darkness that had once surrounded it. As the sword collected more and more darkness the brave miner''s face began to change. His once kind and somewhat arrogant smile had changed into one that would scare children. His hair was messy and unkempt and a smile of pure malice was spread across his face. Slowly light began to fill his eyes as he turned to look towards the other miners. His eyes were full of hatred, not hatred because they made him go grab the sword, but hatred of the living. A sinister laugh echoed through the ravine causing chills to run down the miner''s spines. The one brave miner had turned into a demon who hated all living beings. He slowly cracked his neck as he stared down the miners. He began to stretch out his bones as they cracked with every movement. The katana in his hand was radiating a pitch black flame that looked like it would devour all life. It was the polar opposite of light that was able to engulf light itself because it was so pure of a black. As the miners watched this scene they began to scramble away from him in fear. They tumbled over each other as they raced to get to the rope trying to climb up as fast as they could. The demon miner smiled as he watched them run in terror. He relished the feeling of terror that living beings had. He cackled as he said in a sinister voice "I must thank you for finally awakening me. It has been a long thousand years. In order to thank you, how about I take your life!". he said as he began sprinting towards the miners. The miners screamed as they climbed up the rope. He hacked off one of the miner''s arms as he was climbing up the rope causing him to roar in pain, however, the miner was very tough and he held on for dear life as he began to climb with only one arm. The miners on the rope could only turn deaf ears and blind eyes to what was happening below them because they knew they could do nothing to help. They just climbed up as fast as they could hoping to at least save themselves. The demon miner quickly finished mopping up the miners on the floor as he looked towards the miners climbing up the rope. He cackled as he jumped up grabbing onto the rope with one hand holding the sword in his other. He began to swiftly climb up the rope catching up to the miners who had previously begun climbing up the rope. They looked beneath them in terror as their fear began to make them climb with even greater vigor. They knew that if he caught up to them then they would not survive. The demon miner swiftly caught up to the last person on the rope and jumped up next to him and quickly stabbed the sword through his stomach. He did not want to kill him immediately because then he would not get to enjoy his screams. The miner looked at the demon miner and said "Why Fernando?" as he slipped from the rope and fell into the ravine. The demon miner had a grotesque look on his face after he killed that miner because he did not scream, and that was what the demon miner wanted. He turned from the miner and began to pursue the others who were on the rope. The miners were at the top of the ravine and quickly began to throw themselves over the top landing in the caver. They were panting in exhaustion as they made it to the top. However, they knew they were not safe yet, and heard the demon miner quickly pursuing them. David came running to them when he saw how they looked. "What happened to you guys?" he asked as he helped the miners up. "CUT THE ROPE!" screamed one of the miners as he was crawling away from the ravine. David did not ask questions when he saw the gashes on the miners and quickly used his pickaxe to cut the rope. From within the ravine, an eerie cackled sounded out as the rope was cut. It swiftly fell into the ravine as the cackle got farther and farther away until a loud thud resounded and the laughing stopped. 50 Holy Light and Demonic Cloak "And that was what had happened in the ravine," David said with terror still on his face. He did not want to ever go back to that place and even had trouble just speaking about it. Able looked over at Gwen and she shrugged because she also had no idea what happened in the mine. Able allowed David to leave, so they could discuss what to do in private. Able turned to Gwen after David left and said: "I think that the sword might have some sort of demon inside of it or at least a very evil being is sealed inside". Gwen nodded as she said "Yes since they seemed to have awoken it from a slumber this may cause a problem to our dominion if it gets out. We need to stop it before it escapes." "I agree. From what we have gathered it hates all living things, so letting it leave that mine would be a catastrophe" Able said. "But is it necessary to go destroy it, can''t we just seal up the mine, or again put it into a slumber?" Able continued. "I think it is necessary you go and destroy it because both of those other options are not permanent fixes for the problem. It will just keep on happening if we let it go on like this". Able nodded as he said, "What do you think is the best way to destroy the katana though?" "I am not sure, maybe you can look for an ability that would help you? I don''t know a lot about demons and sword, I am just a businesswoman" Gwen said as she shrugged her shoulders. Able gave a wry smile as he opened up the Faith Shop and looked for something that might be useful for him in this upcoming battle. He scrolled through the numerous abilities, but nothing caught his eye. After an unknown amount of time, he finally found one that he thought would help. It was called [Holy Light], and it allowed the user to produce a, yup you guessed it, Holy light. This Holy light would weaken all demons within a ten-meter radius around him. The said Demons would lose a percentage of their power based on the number of meters long the radius of the Holy light was, so it was currently able to reduce their power by ten percent. This was also the first ability Able had got that he was able to Level up, as right now it was Level 1. Its max level was Level 5 allowing it to reduce the demon''s power by a whole fifty percent when it is maxed level. Able thought this ability was overpowered, however, the downside was it only worked on demons, not even undead which sucked. He purchased [Holy Light] which was 100,000 FP causing Able to sigh in sorrow. He had just got back up to 100k FP after he purchased his subordinate. He checked his stats and saw he was now back down to 3204 FP. He looked at this and wondered if there was also other abilities that worked for all types, if he could purchase them all then he could automatically decrease the fighting strength by anyone he meets in half. He began to search to see if there were other abilities like these two and got disappointing when he could not find any. He quickly realized that those two were the only abilities that were able to affect an entire race as a whole. He closed the Faith Shop after purchasing the [Holy Light] and looked towards Gwen as he gave her a thumbs up signaling he had found an ability. She smiled and then excused herself, so she could continue working on the dominions. She was always swamped with work, and this little fiasco had let her work pile up even more so she had to quickly get back to it. Seeing Gwen so diligent in her job Able smiled as he realized he found the perfect person to oversee his dominions. He knew that he would not do as good of a job as her, as he had never run a company, or anything similar. This caused Able to begin to reminisce about when he was once the richest person in the world. When he thought about how he made it to the top he realized he couldn''t remember how he made his money. He began to think harder on it, but his head started to hurt causing him to stop thinking about it as he clutched his head. Some sort of power forced him to stopped thinking about it while also wiping his memory. 51 Goodbye Able decided to go see this demon sword while taking along Enu to see how his new subordinate would hold up, thus he did not wake up Mary who was still sleeping. He patted her hair and smiled as he whispered "Goodbye", Mary was the one closest to him in the whole world, and was the first other person he had gotten to know. Through this half a year they have gotten really close, and Able has grown to love this charming woman. He got up and headed out of the God Space, with Enu following him. --- Able was currently at the mountain walking towards the mine. Looking around he noticed a lot of changes since he was last here. There was currently a makeshift road that led from Delphi all the way to the mine. Able assumed Gwen had made this so that the miners would have an easier time transporting the ores they had mined into the city. Although the road was not very well made it still got the job done. Looking around he noticed that Enu very easily blended into the trees, and if one did not look carefully they would miss him. Able had tried to talk to Enu, but his responses were blunt, so he quickly realized Enu was not a talker. That kind of made sense, as trees are normally not good at communication. They shortly arrived at the mine which was currently blocked off by some wood. The miners did as best they could in the short amount of time they had to seal off the entrance to the mine, to hopefully stall the demon sword. Although it would not last long they thought that it was worth a try. Able quickly slashed through the logs cutting them in half as they fell to the sides. He turned to Enu as he said: "Let''s go". Enu nodded as he said "My strength will be lowered in the mine. There are no trees." Able nodded as he said "Well I just want to see how you fight, there won''t always be trees in the places where we fight. Like the dungeon, for example, there are no trees in there." Enu grunted in agreement as he followed Able into the mine. They were both walking through the tunnels wary of their surroundings. They did not want to be surprised by a sudden attack, so they were on constant alert. The tunnels were deathly quiet with no sound except their breathing, and Enu''s footsteps. Walking deeper into the mine Able noticed how it progressively got darker and darker. This seemed like it was not a normal darkness, but like a curtain that was spread in front of them. Enu was holding a light trying to increase their field of vision, but this help seemed minimal. Walking through the tunnels Able was getting the constant feeling that someone was watching him, but all he could see was black outside their small halo of light from the torch. He would look around constantly whenever he felt the eyes watching him, but he still could not see. A scream that sounded like a banshee sounded out at the same time and Able sprinted over to see what it was. Enu quickly followed him with the light, and when the light shined upon the noise Able saw a shadow writhing around on the ground clutching its face. Able quickly slashed off the shadows head, and it dissipated into nothingness. Able frowned at this and looked around trying to notice if any other shadows were watching him, but he felt them quickly averting their eyes and running away. He smirked at this and he led Enu deeper into mine looking for the ravine where the demon sword was last seen. No further incidents occurred in the mine and they eventually made it to the recent opening in the wall the miners made. Peering inside Able saw countless shadows walking around inside the cavern. There were two different kinds of shadows he could see one was like the previous one he killed that was tall and thin, and the other was one with a wider girth and looked stronger. He estimated that the bigger shadows we''re around Level 10 and the small ones are Level 1 to 5. He knew he was going to have to fight his way through the shadows in order to get to the bottom of the ravine. He was just hoping that they would not attack them while they were climbing down the ravine. He was planning to have Enu grow some vines along the side of the ravine that they could use to climb down, but if the shadows were attacking them it would make it much harder. 52 Giant Shadow "Rotational Slash!" A young man shouted as he began swiftly spinning in a circle constantly killing shadows that had gotten near him. A giant tree was near him also smashing shadows that got near him as they progressively made their way deeper into the cavern they were currently in. These two, of course, were Able and Enu and they were currently both besieged by shadows, who were trying to prevent them from getting deeper into the caver. Sadly for the shadows, they stood no chance and were easily dealt with by them both. Able smirked as he again slashed through a shadow with ease. As his sword came out of the other side of the shadow tearing it in half he heard a deafening screech from inside the cavern. This caused both of him and Enu to pinpoint their sight on top of one of the huge zombies who began trudging over to them. This was what had screeched earlier, which was one of the things that confused Able because none of the shadows had mouths, but they were still able to make noise. The Giant Shadow began sprinting towards Able as it pushed aside the other smaller shadows sometimes squishing them in the process. Able readied his sword as he looked at the Giant Shadow running towards him. As they neared each other Able flashed towards the Giant Shadow as he roared "Incendiary Slash!". His sword began to produce red flames as his sword was slashing up at the Giant Shadow. The Giant Shadow screeched as is tilted to the side dodging the sword and punched Able in the gut. Able gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. He was not expecting this Giant Shadow to know how to fight, because the normal shadows were so easy to kill. His negligence had cost him a blow, and he was lucky the blow wasn''t fatal. Able checked his stomach and saw that in the spot where the Giant Shadow had hit him his clothes were disintegrated and his abdomen had started to become black, just like the miners. He did not know what this black stuff did, but he quickly drank a Full Heal, which would remove all poisons from the body. Although this may have been a bit hasty, because Able did not know if it was a poison or not, he didn''t want to take any chances. The black on his stomach quickly began to fade after he drank the Full Heal, and he began to fight the Giant Shadow again, this time with more caution. At the same time, Enu also got into a fight with a Giant Shadow, but it was different for him because he fought with his fists, because there were no plants here for him to use. Enu used [Leech Seed] on the Giant Shadow, which to Able''s surprise was constantly curing Enu of the black poison every time it would take some of the Giant Shadow''s life. They were just man fighting each other as the two took turns punching the other in the face. If Able was not in the middle of a fight himself he would not have minded watching this scene for a few hours. The Giant Shadow shrieked as it tried to smash Able with its fist, but Able saw this coming and quickly used [Incendiary Slash] as he slashed off its arm. Now that Able was warry of the Gaint Shadow, it stood no chance against him and was quickly defeated. Although he could not kill it in one his like the normal shadows, they were still just small fries. Enu also quickly finished up his fight as they progressed towards the ravine. As if the shadows knew they would die all of them quickly gathered and receded back into the ravine. It was like a giant black wave that had gone down into the ravine leaving the cavern empty. Able did not try and stop them and watched as all of them quickly went into the ravine in a massive group seeking shelter from Able and Enu''s massacre. Seeing as how they all acted as one entity Able guessed that they were being directly controlled by the Demon Sword. He sighed because he did not want these small fries to interrupt his fight with the Demon Sword, as they would just irk him the whole time. He waved at Enu and they walked up towards the ravine as Able light a torch and threw it down. It illuminated the ravine all the way down until it hit the floor where it showed shadows desperately trying to hide from the light. 53 Into the Ravine The vines eventually reached the bottom of the ravine after two minutes. Able grabbed one and pulled to see if it was sturdy, and was not able to pull it off of the wall. He nodded in satisfaction as he signaled Enu and began to climb down. Enu followed right after his as they both slowly went deeper into the ravine. It began to get darker and darker the deeper they went as if pitch black was not the darkest that was available. It was so dark that the black felt like it was taking a material form. They quickly made it to the bottom of the ravine and were immediately surrounded by shadows. There was much more Giant Shadow''s down in the ravine than there were up top. There was at least one of them for every five normal shadows. Able looked around for the Demon Sword, as the shadows had not attacked yet, and finally found it in the grasp of a dead miner. The miner''s body was almost unrecognizable because of the fall it took, the whole lower half of his body was turned into a meat patty. Able frowned at the sight and slowly began walking towards the Demon Sword. At this time the shadows roared and began to attack again. He was confused at why they did not attack before but shrugged it off as he began exorcizing them. Enu and Able began fighting back to back as they progressively made their way towards the Demon Sword eliminating all shadows that came into contact with them. Able was using his sword as he chopped them to pieces while Enu was using his fists to smash them to bits. The shadows were unable to do anything to the duo, and they both made their way to the Demon Sword with relative ease. They fought off all the shadows, and within a ten-meter radius around the Demon Sword was like a demilitarized zone where no shadows would dare enter. Able entered with Enu and looked towards the Demon Sword. He smirked as he saw it sitting there not able to do anything and swung his sword down at it hoping to break it. "Incendiary Slash!" Able''s sword fell like a meteor at the Demon Sword clashing into it causing reverberations to go throughout the ravine. Able smiled at this and looked towards the shadows with a smirk as if taunting them. His smile soon faltered when he heard a *crack* *crack*. He looked down and saw his sword was beginning to break as from the tip to the hilt cracks formed through it before it shattered to pieces. Able''s eyes widened at this because his sword was made of very strong metal, and would not be broken by just any collision which led him to the assumption that the Demon Sword was made of a very precious metal. ''This sword looks like it will replace my broken one quite well'' Able thought as he looked at the Demon Sword in the dead miner''s grasp. Able, however, was oblivious to this, and grabbed the Demon Sword not knowing any better. One he fully grabbed the Demon Sword his eyes went blank and he stood there holding the Demon Sword without moving. The shadows screeched at this as if laughing and they began to swarm Enu trying to kill him. Enu saw this, and quickly pulled out some seeds from his arm and threw them on the ground. The seeds quickly grew into a dome shape around him and Able protecting them from the shadows attacks. The shadows began to attack the plant shield trying to rip it apart to get at Enu who was inside. They did not want to kill Able because he was the new host for the Demon Sword, but Enu was just an enemy, so they wanted to eliminate him. The shadows were not making progress and were fully covering the plant shield, before a couple of Giant Shadows began to trudge forward throwing the small ones out of the way. Five Giant Shadows surrounded the plant shield as they began to attack it in turn. The plant began to shake as it was cracking from the pressure the Giant Shadows provided. Enu again pulled out some seeds from his arm and threw them. They quickly grew into giant sunflowers that covered the plant shield emitting a very bright light. Able''s [Holy Light] was still active, but the shadows were not demons, so it did not weaken them. His [Holy Light] was being covered by the plant shield not allowing any light to exit from inside, so Enu made the sunflowers who plastered themselves on the outside emit light to scare away the shadows. It worked wonders and the shadows quickly retreated as they screeched trampling over each other to get out of the light. 54 Bleak World 1 Able''s mind went into chaos as he grabbed the Demon Sword causing him to get a massive headache. He wanted to clutch his head in pain, but he was unable to move and could only suffer in silence. He thought that since he had [Holy Light] activated the Demon Sword would be unable to possess him like it did the miner, Able was also much stronger than the miner, so he was full of confidence. Sadly he was wrong, but [Holy Light] did indeed save him, because without it his soul would have been wiped out without even a struggle. He struggled through the pain until it was eventually too much, and he blacked out no longer able to endure. The pleasure of release flashed across his eyes as the pain began to recede his mind falling into darkness. After an unknown amount of time Able opened his eyes to see a new world spread out before him. This world was all black and white with monotonous colors seeming very dull and boring as if lacking the life of a world. Able was not stupid and knew this had something to do with the Demon Sword, he just did not know where he was sent. He looked around and saw a massive wasteland of a desert, with only one giant mountain off in the distance. Seeing as how the mountain was the only defining feature of where he was he decided to head to the mountain to see what was going on. He began trudging through the desert sands as he headed towards the mountain. As he was walking he noticed that it did not feel hot, as it usually would inside of a desert. He looked up and saw that there was no sun, the sky was just an eternal gray that somehow illuminated the world. He frowned at this and kept walking as he had no idea what it meant. He started to make assumptions that he was not even on the same world as he was before. The desert went on for what seemed like an eternity as he made his way towards the mountain. The mountain was very tall and looked as if it was ruling over this entire realm, as the only thing that had any substance in this bleak world. As he was walking through the desert he noticed that it was filled with countless corpses depicting tales of the massacre that had occurred here once before. Able shivered at the thought of what had happened here before because it did not seem like it was a war it looked as if it was a slaughter. Countless corpses were piled inside ditches he passed, some still stuck in the positions of their death weeping for their family. The eeriest thing was that the corpses had not begun to decay, and looked as if they were to be left eternally mourning for their loved ones. They were stuck in the positions of their death frozen for eternity only able to lament over their pitiful deaths. All the people were stuck in positions like mannequins providing Able with a tale of their deaths. They left this world filled with regrets angry at the people who had forsaken them. Some of them had terror on their face while others looked stoic denying the Demon the pleasure of their pain. He walked through the desert as he watched the countless families who died in regret. The deeper he walked into the desert the angrier he became. His heart ached for the innocents who had been killed by this demon. He steeled his heart to this as he began walking towards the mountain. He decided that he was going to avenge these innocents by killing whatever had slaughtered them. Their souls looked to be forcefully stolen out of their body in order to perform some devilish technique. At his waist was the sword that previously broke, but was now in perfect shape. He did not realize before, but now he figured that this space was inside the Demon Sword, and he was currently having his soul slowly stolen like these innocents. If he did not vanquish the demon, then he would be just like them, a body with no soul an eternal servant for the Demon Sword. 55 Bleak World 2 Able arrived at the foot of the mountain after some time. He began trailing the foot of the mountain walking around it to see what the best way to climb was, or if there was a trail somewhere. After circling a quarter of the mountain Able found a giant staircase leading to the top of the mountain. The stairs were old and cracked with pieces missing looking as though they had not passed through the essence of time very well. At the foot of the mountain was a giant gateway that you had to pass in order to begin walking up the staircase. It was pitch black and had runic symbols all over it that Able had no idea what they meant. There were two stone statues with demon-like features standing on either side of the gate with devilish expressions on their face. Able frowned at this, but still decided to try and climb the stairs. He walked up to the gateway after inspecting it for a bit and went to push it open, only to find out he was unable to move it even the tiniest bit. He frowned at this as pushed harder until he realized that he was not strong enough. He stopped as he began thinking of how to get passed. He already tried walking around it, but there seemed to be some type of barrier blocking the entire mountain with this gate seemingly being the only way up. Seeing as how the gate was not opening Able decided that the only way to get past was to break the gate open. He pulled out his sword and stepped back a bit before attacking the gate with his full strength. A loud thud resounded, but the gate ended up without even a scratch on it. Able was stunned because even with his strongest attack the gate was still in perfect shape. As he was looking at the gate he heard some cracking and creaking. He sighed in relief thinking his attack had finally worked and walked up to the gate to see if it would open now. As he went to push the gate he heard a *whoosh* and felt a sense of danger and jumped back immediately. *Boom* Right where he was standing before a stone halberd was resting in a small crater on the floor. If he had stayed there any longer he would have been killed by this sneak attack. Able looked to see the two stone demon statues begin to step down from the pedestals they were standing on. They began to stretch as they looked towards Able with smirks on their faces. "Hey RockHead it''s been a while since a challenger has come here huh?" one of the stone statues said to the other as he rolled he neck causing cracking noises to sound out. "Yeah, this one looks weak though BlockHead. We will not get to be awake for long it seems." The other sighed as he lifted up his halberd that was on the floor. "Well, we can at least have a little fun while we are awake RockHead. Let''s take out time, we have not been out for ages!" BlockHead giggled. Able watched this with anger on his face. They were ignoring him while they were calling him weak at the same time! "HEY! Two idiots! I am still standing here you know!" Able yelled at them. "Oh yeah, we nearly forgot about this weakling huh RockHead," said BlockHead while looking down at Able. "Hey can you wait a bit, we are trying to catch up with each other! We haven''t talked to each other in a couple thousand years! Have a little decency would ya?" Said RockHead with an annoyed tone while frowning at Able. "Alright, I will let you two catch up, just tell me how to get past this gate!" Able said as he shook his head feeling that he had lost a few brain cells just talking to these two. "Oh, it''s easy! All you need to do in order for the gate to open is to defeat us in battle, huh RockHead?" BlockHead said as he looked at RockHead. RockHead nodded and said "Yup you just have to defeat us, but only five other people have defeated us in battle before, huh BlockHead" "Yup those guys sure were strong! It is a pity that we always have to decrease our Level to the same as the challenger''s though, or else we would have not been defeated, huh RockHead?" "Yup, Yup, we would never have been defeated," RockHead said as he nodded. Able sighed as he said "Well can we start fighting now? I am kind of in a hurry here!" "You are so rude, us two brothers just haven''t seen each other in a while, so we wanted to catch up, but since you are so eager to be defeated I guess we can start, huh RockHead?" 56 Bleak World 3 "Alright, BlockHead then lets end this fast" Rockhead said as he wielded his halberd. "With such a weak opponent it would shame us if we didn''t end it fast BlockHead," Rockhead said as he also got into fighting position. Even though they kept saying Able was a weak opponent they did not look like they were going to go easy on him or let their guard down. Both the statues held their halberds in their hands and looked down at Able. They were about two times his size standing at around twelve feet tall. Now that they were finally going to start fighting Able smiled as he also got into a fighting stance. The two statues circled him wanting to attack from two sides, in order to defeat him easier. Seeing this Able knew why most of the combatants would lose when facing them because it would be two equally strong opponents against one. Able did not let them surround him and quickly backed up as he went to attack RockHead who was on his right. His sword trailed behind him as his body was lowered to the ground sprinting at full speed towards RockHead. RockHead slashed downwards with his halberd wanting to block Able''s charge, but Able dexterously jumped and used the halberd as a foothold to jump higher as he slashed down at RockHead''s face. At this time BlockHead had also arrived at the fight following Able and slashed with his halberd trying to hit Able out from midair. He made sure to position his hit, so if he missed he would still not hit RockHead, and just graze past his head. Able was unable to dodge as he was in midair, so he used his sword to block the hit and was sent flying due to the impact. He twirled and landed on his feet and again charged at the two statues now that he had regained his footing. Able decided this time to go for their legs because their heads were so much higher, and being in midair was a bad idea with their long reach. He dodged their halberds as they came crashing down from above, and slashed towards BlockHead''s ankle. His sword made a cut on his Achilles heel, which was what Able wanted in order to slow him down. However, RockHead seemed to not even be fazed by this and was still moving perfectly fine as he used the same foot that was cut in order to kick Able. Able was kicked right into the waiting BlockHead, who used the butt of his halberd to hit Able, as he was not in a position to use the sharp end. These two had been working in tandem for millennia, so their teamwork was impeccable causing Able to be at the losing end of the fight. Sword and halberd clashed as the fight went on each opponent trying to get the better of the other. Able, and the stone statues fought, as they maneuver around the clearing at the base of the mountain. A halberd slashed passed Able''s stomach as he barely managed to dodge, leaning backward in order to move out of the way. As he was leaning back another halberd came swinging towards his back causing Able to deftly twist from his position as he rolled out of the way popping back up to his feet as soon as possible. Able was panting in exhaustion as he looked towards the stone statues who were preparing for another attack. They did not seem winded in the slightest and Able could quickly tell that they exerted no physical effort in order to fight Able. He realized that he must end this fight fast because they would win in the long run. So far all he has been able to do after his first attack on RockHead''s ankles was run away and dodge their ferocious attacks. He thought that the stone statues, after not moving for countless years would be gritty, and clunky not able to move fluidly, but he was wrong and they were very capable of putting up a fight. Able looked up as he gritted his teeth in determination, he was going to get up this mountain, and he was going to vanquish the demon that dwelled there. If not for saving his life, then for letting those that died in sorrow lamenting over their unjustified deaths rest in peace after the demon that slaughtered them has died. 57 Bleak World 4 A sword slashed downwards towards the head of a giant stone statue. Surprisingly though, was that the statue was able to move its limbs like it had been reanimated. The stone statue was wielding a halberd and desperately tried to block the sword coming down to slash at his head. However the stone statue was too slow, and the sword managed to slice down cutting through the statue''s head cutting down diagonally from the right ear to the neck. The stone statue roared in pain as in a last ditch effort kept the momentum of its'' halberd going and slashed at the man who was currently in front of his face. The man pushed off of his face with his foot and flung himself backward as the halberd cut through the stone statue''s body resting inside his chest when it stopped moving. The man smiled at this as he sighed in exhaustion. Of course, this man was Able, and he had just killed one of the two stone statues, RockHead. Speaking of the two stone statues the other one was currently about to slash Able in half while swinging his halberd ferociously from behind. Able heard this halberd slicing through the air, and as he was not in a good position to dodge he held his sword behind him as he braced for impact. The halberd slammed into the sword causing Able''s arm to numb from the impact. As he regained his footing he shook his hand in pain as he complained "Come on, It''s not like he won''t come back to life. Don''t get so worked up over it BlockHead". "A stupid human like you would not understand camaraderie. You filth will stab your own parents in the back if you are going to profit from it" he said with disgust on his face as he spits on the floor. Can a stone statue even spit? Well, I digress. Able got back up as he began rotating his arm to alleviate the pain, however, BlockHead did not want to give him time to rest and charged at him while twirling his halberd. Able frowned and stopped stretching his arm and readied himself for the fight. BlockHead knew that if he was not careful Able would kill him, and complete the challenge allowing entrance onto the mountain which was the last thing he wanted, so he decided to use his weapons range to his benefit and attacked Able from afar. Able noticed BlockHead''s new plan, and decided to foil it as soon as possible. He charged with abaddon as he wanted to get inside his killcircle towards his chest, this way nullifying almost all of the halberds uses. Able kept running BlockHead down, as the stone statue tried to distance itself from him, however Able was much faster and quickly made it inside of the reach of his weapon. He slashed towards BlockHead''s dominant arm hoping to impare the movement of his weapon. After his slash cut through a few inches of BlockHead''s skin a foot came flying towards Able''s stomach. He knocked the foot to the outside as he turned and slashed straight at BlockHead''s waist bisecting him with ease. BlockHead looked down at Able with a look of acknowledgment on his face as he tried to say something, but his body crumbled before he could speak. Able sighed at this as he dropped to the floor in exhaustion. This fight was extreemly difficult, and it caused Able to exert his strength to the maximum. Expecially the last part of the fight where he had to counter the kick, because when he counters he still takes damage, and the impact from the kick caused him a lot of pain. The Gateway creaked as the old wooden doors slowly began to slide open as the runes on the gateway light up with a bloody light. Able smiled at this, as he had now completed the trial and was able to climb up the mountain. After resting for a while Able got up from the floor and sheathed his sword. Looking towards the rubble he nodded to them as he passed saying "It was a great fight", even though they were trying to kill him Able could tell they had a warriors heart, one that only accepted death in battle. The rocks on the floor moved slightly, as if they too recognized Able''s strenght. Able paused at this, but just smiled as he continued walking. He felt that the two stone statues, did not like to be eternal guardians for a demon, but were somehow forced. He decided that if he was Able, he was going to try and help these two stone statues, and release them from this eternal servitude of a demon. 58 Ables disappearance Mary yawned and stretched as she just woke up from one of the best naps she had in her life. She rubbed her sleepy eyes as she began looking around from her master. She wanted to tell him about the dream she just had. She was in a world, where there was a giant lollipop that she was able to have all to herself! Of course in the dream, she shared with her master because she was devoted to him. She threw the blankets aside as she got off of the bed and walked around the God Space on a mission to find her master. After searching through all the rooms she realized he was not inside, and exited the space into Delphi to see if he was inside the city somewhere. She began wandering the city looking for Able, and asked many passersby''s if they knew his whereabouts, but they said they had not seen him since earlier that day when he helped out some injured miners. Mary thanked the man as she headed towards the hospital to find Able. She did not know what to do without Able, so the first thing she did when she woke up was to go look for him. After arriving at the hospital she saw an old man with a long beard bending over some men who were on the hospital beds with horrible injuries. "Hello, Doctor Cromwell" Mary said as she walked up to the old man and put a cute smile on her face. "Oh, hello Mary, I am sorry if I am unable to be attentive right now, it is just these patients have serious injuries that I need to attend to," Doctor Cromwell said as he went about his work after taking a glance at Mary. Normally Dr. Cromwell would have Mary sit down for tea when she visited as she was an important person in this Dominion, but he was crammed with work at the moment and could not help. "Oh that''s alright Dr. Cromwell, I just have a quick question, and then I will let you attend to your work," Mary said as she looked at the injured patients. The patients had black spots on their skin where it looked as if they smeared some tar on their bodies. They were groaning as their faces were pale from the pain, rolling side to side on their beds to somehow alleviate the pain they were feeling. "Okay, tell me quickly because I do not know if I would be able to save these men," Dr. Cromwell said before he ordered some nearby nurses to go get some medical ingredients. The nurses nodded as they scampered off the gather the supplies. "Is Able around here anywhere? I need to find him for something urgent" Mary said, as she half concealed the truth feeling bad that she interrupted his saving of lives. "No, he left after he helped drop off these patients, you should ask Gwen, as she knows all the happenings in the city." Dr. Crowmwell said as he moved from his current patient to the next one in line. Dr. Crowmwell was stunned for a second before he grabbed them and thanked Mary fervently "You are a lifesaver! Thank you, Mary, with this I will be able to counteract the poison in their bodies, and let them have a complete recovery!" He was about ready to kiss her hands, but Mary quickly backed off as she noticed the look in his eyes. Able had originally not given the miners health potions, because they cost 100 FP each, and a miner is only 25 FP, so it would not be worth the FP. With one health potion he could get three extra miners, so he decided not to waste the FP on them, as they would have been saved, either way. It just would have taken longer without the health potions. Mary, however, was not in control of the FP, so she did not know how much everything cost, and just gave Dr. Cromwell the health potions as compensation for taking up some of his time when he was at work. She did not do it, because she wanted to save the miners lives, but because she felt she owned Dr. Cromwell, nothing more, nothing less. Both of them are not saints, and would not try and put up a false front of one. They just go by their own morals and do what they think they should, whether it be saving the innocent or killing the wicked. 59 Speaking of accepting... Mary walked through the streets of Delphi as she evaded passersby and walked around food stalls. The city was very lively and joyous, and there was little to no crime in the city due to Able''s harsh punishments causing Mary to smile at the scene. "Oh hey, Mary!" A voice called out from behind her and she stopped to turn around. Coming from behind her was a man in his early forties, and had a stubble for a beard. His hair was slightly graying and he had a smile on his face as he greeted Mary. "Oh! How is it going, John? Anything you need me for?" She asked preemptively because she was aware of his directional capabilities. "Now that you mention it, I seem to have misplaced my house," John said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Mary rolled her eyes and a small smile plastered itself across her lips. "Follow me then, it is in the same direction I am going anyways," she said as she began walking again. John let out a small sigh of relief because he did not want to go ask the City Mayor again. He hurriedly caught up to Mary as he began to engage in conversation. "So, how come you are not with God?" he said after he caught up with her. "I was just looking for him when you called out to me, he left me at home alone, so I need to go find him," she said with pouty lips. "Yeah, I know what you mean, sometimes my friends would leave me in the fields after work," John said in understanding. Little did he know, that he just could not find his way back to the Town sometimes, and they would wait for him, but after he hadn''t shown up for a while they would decide to go eat without him. "Yeah, some people can be inconsiderate of others feelings. They have trouble accepting your feelings because you called them papa in the past, and they saw you as a daughter. Why can''t they just realize a cute girl was willing to be with them, and then accept her?!" She said as a frown appeared on her face as she was getting worked up. Even though John was directionally challenged he could still understand that the conversation was going in the wrong direction, so he tried to steer it somewhere else. "Speaking of accepting, did you know that...except for my house people also move other buildings around in the Town? I think you should look into that, as it may cause an inconvenience for the townsfolk." He said as he wiped the sweat of his brow. He did not want to take a chiding from Mary, as he already got enough from his wife! "Hmm, this seems to be a commend problem with you and Kate," Mary said as she rubbed her chin in fake though. She knew both of them were just directionally challenged, so she did not really take his statement to mind, but this was beside the fact. John had succeeded in dodging the rant from Mary! "Yeah, thanks for escorting me, hahaha," he said as a little blush crept onto his cheeks. Mary smiled as she said, "No problem" she then turned around and headed towards Gwen''s office, which was not too far away. When she said that John''s house was in the same direction she was only partially telling the truth, as she had to pass Gwen''s office to get to his house, but she still decided to take him home first. She quickly arrived in front of Gwen''s office and headed inside as the guards saluted her as she passed by not attempting to stop her. They all knew who the bosses of the City where, and Mary was one of them. She headed inside and passed through the front rooms heading towards the office in the back. The front rooms were used to greet guests while the back room was where Gwen did all her work. She has been here multiple times before, so she knew the layout of the office already and did not need a guide. She arrived at the room in the back pushed open the door after she knocked and walked in to see Gwen at a desk with glasses on as she was flipping through papers. Gwen peered up past her glasses and quickly glanced at Mary before she went back to work and asked: "What is it?". 60 Marys Change "What is it?" Gwen asked as she peered up past her glasses before getting back to the papers on her desk. Gwen was constantly at work and always seemed to have something she needed to do. However, she never complained about her stockpile of work, because she enjoyed working because she was able to be useful to her master in some way. Not like a certain curly haired beastkin she knew. Gwen was ruffling through papers not really paying much attention to Mary, as she did not want to stop working. "hmph" Mary pouted when she noticed Gwen''s attitude towards her, but after she realized Gwen was still not paying attention she asked, "Do you know where master is? I have been looking for him and was unable to find him." Gwen stopped shuffling through papers as she looked towards Mary. Mary had an anxious look on her face because she was almost never away from Able''s side, so this feeling was fairly new to her. After studying her face for a while Gwen nodded her head as she said: "I do". Joy flashed across her face as Mary ran forward and grabbed Gwen''s hand as she asked "Well? Where is he? I need to find him for something important". Of course, she had nothing important to find Able for, but she felt saying this would persuade Gwen to tell her what she wanted to hear. "I don''t think I should tell you, as he has gone somewhere without you for a reason. Isn''t that right? I think he wanted to train Enu, so he left you here, so he could train with Enu alone." Gwen said as went back to her papers. Mary''s face darkened as she looked at Gwen and her fists balled up. She was stopping her from finding her beloved! Just when Mary was about to snap Gwen again began talking "I will tell you though that he is no longer in the city. He has left his dominions already". As Gwen was not paying attention to Mary she did not realize that she had narrowly avoided a disaster, as Mary was about to attack her. Mary''s face brightened a bit when she heard this and decided to go search the city and find out where he went. She decided the next person she would ask would be the mayor, as he would listen to her as she was his superior. Mary left the building with a frown as she quickly walked towards the mayor''s house. She was in a bad mood because her master had left without her, and did not even tell her about it. ''What if this is all a ruse, and he is just covering up a meeting with another girl? He is not allowed to have another girl unless I approve of her first! She must fit my standards! I''ll kill him if he betrays me!'' Mary thought as her face began to darken once more. --- Gwen looked up from her papers as she watched the door. ''What happened to Mary? She had not been like this before''. Back when Gwen first met Mary she saw her as a nice person, who would not have such a dark aura around her. Gwen was unaware of the catalyst for Mary''s change in behavior, but she did know for a fact that something had happened and they needed to find out what. Today was the first day Gwen noticed Mary''s change in attitude, and it might be because of the recent happenings with Able that it caused her to change faster. --- In a dark room where curtains covered the only windows blocking out all the light. A fire flickered in a hearth not too far away casting eerie shadows around the room causing the man kneeling on the floor to gulp. "Sir, our plan is going as proceeded. The victim''s mind has just been rotted, even though it happened before we intended, it will not affect our plans." The man said as he dared not to raise his head to look at the person on the throne before him. A raspy voice sounded out in the room "Good, make sure to take control of those cities. How is the other victim?" "Oh, her? We have had her under our control for a long time, and she looks like she will not be breaking from it anytime soon. We have even preoccupied her with war just in case" the man replied. "Hmm. You may go." the voice sounded as it slowly faded away into the dark. The man nodded and got up as he politely bowed before leaving the room. 61 Top of the mountain Able walked through the gateway leading up the mountain an felt as he was walking through some sort of membrane. Like he was walking through a giant bubble, and although it did not affect him he still felt it weird. Able turned around to see what it was and realized this once easily breakable membrane was hard as steel. He pressed on it to see if he could walk back but was stopped by the membrane. He sighed and did not even try to break it because he already knew he wouldn''t be able to. He turned around and started scouting out the mountain path. Looking up towards the top of the mountain he could see some sort of building on top of the mountain. He did not see anything else along the stairs up to the mountain, so he decided to start walking up. He was still wary of his surroundings, so he decided to walk up the mountain slowly. Eventually, he made it to the top of the mountain without any mishaps and stepped off the stairs stepping onto a flattened out part of the mountain. He looked around and saw that the whole top of the mountain looked as if to be chopped off by a sword, and was cleanly bisected. In the middle of the clearing, there was a shrine that was decorated with offerings. In the middle of the shrine sat the demon katana, that looked as if it was the ruler of this world. Able readied his sword as he cautiously looked towards the shrine, not wanting any surprises. As he slowly crept towards the shrine the katana shook before it flew into the air and began to hover above the shrine. Able stopped as the katana hummed and a giant projection appeared above the katana. It was a devilishly beautiful woman who was capable of toppling kingdoms with her beauty. She had midnight-black hair and a perfect hourglass figure. However, she emitted a dark aura that would ward off any possible suitors. "Hey handsome, I never expected you to actually make it all the way up here. It''s a rare case when someone makes it past the gateway." She said as she smiled at him with a coy look. Able, however, did not fall into this beauty''s trap and said: "You are the demon here, are you not?" She had a hurt look on her face as she said "How can you call such a beautiful woman like me a demon? I might just die from heartache" She said as tears welled up in her eyes. Able scoffed as he said, "That would actually do wonders since I have come here to kill you anyways." The Demon laughed as its faced changed and a grotesque looking face appeared. It was an old man who had pointy teeth and a scarred face. He laughed as he looked down at Able with a smile on his face and said: "Are you impotent or gay? How can you not feel anything for such a beautiful woman? You know that she is the princess of one of the Seven Demon clans, and you don''t even bat an eye when I transformed into her?" "You desecrated your own princess, the Demon Clans are only this huh?" Able said as he shook his head. "I did not desecrate her pure image! I was just trying to see if you would blaspheme her! Don''t accuse me of deeds I did not do!" The old man shrieked, as he did indeed desecrate his princess, and if word got out he would be hunted down by his own people. "Enough of you stupid human! I will shut you up myself, you are lucky enough to even be alive right now, because I am already capturing your soul one bit at a time, and you will die eventually anyway, so just roll over and die right now." The old man said as he sneered. "Bring it on old man! I don''t think you would be able to move around with such a crippled old body like that anyways. You must be over five thousand years old already, and you are still sealed inside of a sword, how sad is that. It doesn''t seem like you are that strong to me anyways." Able said as he sneered back. And Able was right because the Demons power slowly began falling the longer he was sealed inside the katana and was now not much stronger than Able. "If I was not sealed in this sword and thrown into this shithole you guys call a world, then I would be able to kill you with a flick of my finger!" The Demon said as he spit on the floor. 62 Fighting the Old Demon 1 The demon laughed as Able charged towards him before he reached down and picked up the katana as he prepared to fight Able. Able activated his [Holy light] as he charged towards the laughing demon. The Demon received his attack and parried it with his katana as he slashed at Able cleanly bisecting him. Able roared in pain as he looked down to see his body separated into two pieces. The demon laughed as he said "How it feels to eat my sword. Stimulate your senses!" Able watched as his body became some sort of smoke before reforming itself into a whole body again. Able gasped as he clutched his stomach to see if he was alright, and noticed that his body was whole once again. He was flabbergasted at how he was still alive after being cut in two. He thought about it for a bit before he realized this was not a real world, and his real body was outside holding the demon sword while this was just his body being projected into another world by his soul. He looked inside himself and saw that his soul indeed took some damage from that attack, but he estimated he would be able to die around twenty more times before his soul was completely obliterated. Although the more he died the more his soul was damaged, he could heal a damaged soul, but could not revive. The Demon did not wait any longer and again attacked Able, this time beheading him before he even had a chance to move. Able''s head went flying into the air as it twirled before landing on the ground and turning into smoke, before reforming itself into a whole body once more. "HAHAHA, you are so weak that you can''t take a single of my attacks! You are a few thousand years too early to challenge me human!" The Old Demon laughed as he watched Able''s head fly through the air. Able frowned as he warily watched the Demon. The Demon was much more skilled with weapons than Able ever was, as he was over five thousand years old, while Able was not even twenty-five. Not wanting to waste any time the Demon again attacked Able, flashing through the air the Demon appeared before Able and his katana whistled as it flew through the air aiming for his neck again. Able was predicting this though and yelled "Counter!" as he parried the blade knocking it to the outside as the sword was thrust towards the Demons heart. The Demon leaped backward to dodge the thrust and with a serious look on his face yelled "Shadow Blade!" as the katana disappeared from his hand. Able was curious as to where the Demon''s sword went but decided to attack when the Demon had no weapon. Able chased down the Demon, who was currently trying to evade him before slashing towards the Demon''s gut. His sword was about to spill the demon''s guts when Able saw a smirk on the Demon''s face and tried to retreat because he knew he fell into a trap but was too late. The Demon had actually killed him with his katana, which was currently invisible due to his [Shadow Blade] skill. This skill allowed him to turn his blade invisible for up to two minutes in battle, but once it was used to attack it came out of the shadows and was again visible. The Demon smiled, as his ploy had worked. The Demon also knew that Able was going to be reviving constantly, but he did not think much of it because he saw Able as a weak human who was easy to kill. The Demon had been fighting for his whole life and was over five-thousand years old, so he had tons more experience than Able. In the Demon Clan, he came from, they had to constantly fight because they ruled by the survival of the fittest where the weak died and the ones to survive dominated over the weak. Just the fact that he was able to survive while being born in that Demon Clan is a testament to his prowess, and the fact that he was once an elder level figure in the clan says even more. "Well human, why don''t you just give up, as you will not be able to defeat me? Just accept your loss like a good little boy? Death is actually very welcoming you know?" He cackled at Able taunting him. 63 Fighting the Old Demon 2 Clashes reverberated from the top of the mountain as the two fought each other with an indescribable ferocity. They both did not want to lose, as the Demon wanted to cause more chaos, and Able wanted to live. The Demon laughed as Able once again was killed by him. "Why are you still fighting? Do you love the feeling of pain?" Able did not respond to him and again began to fight against the demon. Although Able was still dying every time they fought, each time Able would last longer because of the experience he gained from the fight. Slowly Able began to fight for longer periods of time against the old Demon and began to give him a run for his money. Able slashed at the Demon''s stomach as the Demon twisted in the air trying to dodge. He twirled from the attack as he reverse gripped his sword and slashed back down at Able. Able blocked the strike and used [rotational slash] to injure the old Demon. The Demon began to get serious as he noticed Able was taking in all his deaths, and using them in order to gain more experience. He was not a stupid person and realized why Able was progressively getting stronger over the fights, but he could not really do anything about it because if he stopped fighting Able, then Able would kill him. And he couldn''t run either because he was stuck at the top of the mountain unable to leave it. The Demon sighed, as he was left with no other choice than to continue fighting Able and allow him to get more fighting experience. Even though Able was said to be at the top of his world, he would only be considered below average in this one where strength it power. The Demon yelled "Pit of Malice" as a giant black circle surrounded Able, and he felt his life force slowly beginning to drain away. He was unable to do anything about it as his body was shrunk to a husk and he collapsed to the floor. The circle vanished after Able died, and his body turned to spoke, back to its repetitive reformation. He reformed and clutched at his body to see if it was still fine, as this was the worst way he has died yet, having his blood sucked out of his body. The pain was immense, and Able even though the Demon made the pain worse on purpose. He glared at the Demon as they got back to fighting, he wanted nothing more than to finish this as fast as possible because he noticed that he only have about five lives remaining before his soul was completely obliterated. He had underestimated the amount of time the demon could kill him in such a short amount of time. He gripped his sword until his hands turned pale, and he glared down the Demon. Killing the Demon was his only escape. He felt anger boiling inside him like magma when he looked at the Demon who has killed countless innocents. After all, he was called a God and had people worship him. He thought that with this new title, he would stand on top of the world again, unchallenged. However his dreams were wrong, and this world was not like the one he once was one. In this world, many people reign supreme with immeasurable power capable of killing Able with a toss of their hand. His fantasies of his strength were just that, fantasies. He had not come to grasp the real capabilities of the inhabitants of this world, and this ignorance had caught up to him. He now lay on the ground with the Demon towering over him laughing. Able only had one arm at the moment and was down to his last life. The Demon could also measure his soul strength and knew this was Able''s last life, as to why he was laughing and taunting Able. "You should have listened to me boy! I don''t see why you would try and challenge me when you have such weak strength." He scornfully looked down at Able as he prepared to kill him one last time. "You have only wasted my time. Well, at least you have given me a much-needed workout, as I have not been able to fight for at least a few hundred years. In order to repay you, I shall grant you death!" He said as a vicious light filled his eyes. 64 The classic accidental boob grab Alexander watched as a pitch black flame came hurling towards him. The Demon laughed as he looked down at Able. But at this time Able''s mind was working at supersonic speed, as the oncoming threat of death seemed to heighten his thinking process. He began to calculate all possible escape routes or plans to survive the fight as multiple were coming up with his death. He was running through simulations of all the scenario''s watching himself be killed in multiple ways unable to escape the Demon. Finally, he stopped calculating as he looked towards the black fire in a deadly calm. He no longer needed to fear, as he had found the best chance of survival. Even if it was not one hundred percent it was enough for him. Able let the fireball fly towards him as he waited. He did not try and get out of the way and allowed it to come towards him. He waited as the milliseconds counted down popping sounds resounded as the heat from the fireball began to burn Able. The fireball got closer and closer as Able Waited. Eventually watching as it was a foot in front of him before he thought ''Now!''. He quickly activated his perish passage, and the floor beneath him disappeared as he fell into the passage appearing on the other side. He set the exit of the passage in the air above the demon and came falling out above the demon head with his sword drawn. The demon was clueless about Able''s maneuver and laughed thinking he had killed Able. Able fell down, as his sword went cleanly into the Demons head all the way down to the hilt killing him instantly. Able dropped to the floor as he watched the Old demon stumble around before falling flat on its face unable to stand any longer. In the distance, Able heard the loud booms like thunder echoing through the void. He looked towards the noise and saw that the sky began to crack, as pieces of the world were falling to the floor. He was shocked at the scene for a moment but soon realized that it was because the Demon who was supposed to be sealed in here was now deal causing the formation that sealed him to begin its own self-destruction. Able felt his body turn light, as is slowly faded away from the world he was in. His consciousness faded, as his mind returned to his body that was holding the Demon Katana. His mind was foggy, and he looked around and saw only vines, as he thought ''How did I get in the forest?'' because the last thing he remembered was being in the mine. It was at this moment he heard the shrieks of the shadows, and his mind began to clear. He looked around and noticed he was not in the forest, but surrounded by vines that Enu used to protect him. He went to stand up, but felt something squishy on his chest, and reached down to grab it. He held Mary in a princess carry, as he looked towards Enu, who was currently watching Able. "Let''s get out of here now. I have eliminated the demon, and it will cause no more harm." A flash of surprise showed on Enu''s tree face before it quickly vanished and he nodded. He was not expecting Able to kill the Demon, just to reseal it. Enu waved his hand as the vines moved out of the way creating a path leading out of the mine. All the shadows had currently run for their lives now that their leader had died, and no longer wanted to mess with Able. Able picked up the katana and tied it to his waist as he carried Mary on his back as he started scaling the walls of the ravine heading out of the mine. He did not bother asking how, or why Mary was here, as he assumed she would come to find him when he came here alone. Enu quickly followed after him, as he retracted all the vines making sure the shadows would not be Able to climb out as easy as they did. Able left the mine with a new sword, but a severely damaged soul. He was not showing it on the outside, as he wanted to appear strong before his subordinates, but he currently most of his senses were not working, and his eyesight was barely working at all. 65 Repairing his Soul Able arrived back in the dominion and entered the God Space along with Mary. He laid her on the bed, as she was still asleep and called Gwen over so they could discuss what happened. He left Enu to go manage the dungeon, as Enu did not talk much anyways. Gwen arrived quickly and stood before Able as she brought along some tea. He smiled at her thoughtfulness and thanked her before motioning her to sit. The two sat across from each other, and Able quickly went over what happened in the mine, and how he had lost a large chunk of his soul. Gwen sucked in a cold breath as she heard what happened, just the tension from his story causing her to get a cold sweat. "So first thing I need to do is to repair my soul, and then we can continue on our plan to take over Zalfari," Able said. "I am unable to see, and almost all my senses are disabled right now, so I need you to go purchase a cure from the Faith Shop, as I am unable to do it myself." "I asked Genesis what to buy, and she said that the [Life Nectar], is able to repair my soul. I only need one drop in order to fully repair my soul, as it is not that powerful as of yet." Able continued Gwen nodded, even though she realized the uselessness of that, as he was unable to see her. She opened the Faith Shop and searched to find the [Life Nectar]. She quickly found it, and noticed that it cost 150000FP just for a drop of the nectar! She steeled herself, as she purchased the nectar. They were lucky that they had enough FP, as Able was trapped in that Bleak World for over ten days allowing them to save up enough FP in order to purchase this rip off of an item. She bought it, and a tiny glass bottle appeared in her hand that had a golden liquid inside of it. It was like liquid Gold, and when she popped off the top a scent that was like a sweet summer breeze was emitted out of it. Gwen lost herself in the pleasure of the scent and nearly drank the nectar herself until she noticed Able was still waited to be healed. She blushed at her blunder and quickly walked before him as she held out his chin pouring the liquid down his throat. The sweet nectar began pouring down Able''s throat, and he felt like he was drinking the milk of Mother Nature. It tasted so pure, and clean from impurities that he felt his body was tainting the nectar. It poured through his body as it began to circulate around reaching every part. He felt it reaching into the depths of his body slowly seeping into his soul. He felt the nectar reforming his body as he was slowly getting stronger. However, this was not strength from levels this was strength from something else. He felt like it was from inside himself, different from how the powers he received from Levels are exterior. This newfound sensation caused Able to begin to relish this feeling as he wanted it more and more. He wanted to become stronger, not to rely on the power he receives from the levels. His eyes cleared up as he was finally able to see again and he saw a drop dead gorgeous woman standing before him with her hand on his chin. She was slightly blushing causing her to draw the attention of men even more. Able was even stunned for a few seconds before he decided to stick to his promise that he made earlier and put his arms around her waist as he drew her forward bringing her in for a kiss. He slowly wrapped his arms around her and brought her close as he stole her lips. They were soft like marshmallows and tasted like honey. He marveled at the taste, because he felt on some levels it was just as good as the [Life Nectar]. He darted his tongue in her mouth as he began to greedily kiss her. She was stunned at what happened, but she got caught in the moment and wrapped her arms around his neck as she began to relish the kiss as well. Time seemed to freeze and the two were stuck in their own worth relishing in the other''s lips. They finally broke apart and a string of saliva was left connecting the two. Gwen blushed as she wiped away the saliva, and hit Able''s chest in embarrassment. 66 Spirit Possession Able woke up the next morning to find Gwen had already left, most likely because she had a lot of work to do. Able sighed, as he thought about how much work Gwen does for him with no credit. He got up as he stretched and he turned to see Mary staring daggers at him from the other side of the room. Able gulped as he got off the bed smiling and waved Mary over. She slowly walked towards him as she said with a blank look on her face without any emotion "What were you doing with Gwen?". Her little hands were clenched into fists as she looked at him in anger. Able was stumped when he saw this because his cute Mary would never act like this before, and she had changed. He thought back to what Gwen had told him, about Mary changing and acting weird and he knew she was right. He decided that he was going to try and cure her of whatever has caused her to change, but first, he needed to quickly pacify her or else things would get bad. "Why are you thinking of Gwen? You know that you are the most important to me" Able said as he smiled bringing Mary into his embrace. Mary was extremely stiff, but after leaning against his chest she looked up at him with a soulless look in her eyes and said: "Are you sure?" Able nodded as he said "Of course! You were my first assistant after all". He held her into his chest, and she slowly calmed down forgetting what had happened and accepted the bliss of being in Able''s chest. After this was over Able began to research ways to figure out what was wrong with Mary. He took samples of her blood and even used talismans he bought from the Faith Shop to try and figure out what was wrong with her. He got lost in his research and was excluded from the world for a few days as he was desperately trying to found out a diagnosis for Mary, as she was extremely important to him. ---One week later "Here it is!" Able exclaimed as he held a book in his hands. The page he was on read, "A Victim can sometimes lose their rationality becoming what is known as a yandere" - Book of possessions. Able had gotten this book from the Faith Shop, as he was unable to find out what was wrong with Mary any other way, and eventually found a possession that matches Mary''s symptoms. He had also searched through other books, but he had only come to a conclusion after reading through this one. He stood up as he cheered finally finding a diagnosis that matched Mary. He looked to the side to see the cure and it read "The victim must have the spirit that possessed them forcefully extracted, or else their mind will eventually no longer belong to them, and they will become mindless following only the orders of their master" Reading this Able began to sweat, as he was not expecting the case to be this serious. If he had not noticed in time Mary could have done something she did not want to do. However some of them were quite expensive in the shop, so it would take some time for him to buy them, so he reluctantly had to wait. ---One Week Later Able had finally been able to gather all the required materials needed to save Mary, and he called her inside the God Space so that he could extract the spirit that was possessing her. She had no clue that this was happening, but since Able had called her she gladly came. "Come, sit here Mary," Able said as he pointed towards a formation he had drawn in the middle of the God Space. Mary nodded as she stepped into the middle of the formation and sat in the lotus position. The formation was filled with many ancient runes in a language unknown to Mary. The radiated power, that caused Mary to be a little fidgety. Able nodded as he got out all the materials and set them to the side as he gathered his courage and prepared to cure Mary. He gulped as he pulled out a potion handing it to Mary as he said: "Drink this first". 67 Spirit Extraction Mary sat in the middle of the formation created by Able suspended by the power of the runes unable to move as she was unconscious. Able gulped as he pulled out a bottle from behind him and began to whisper enchantments and a mysterious wind began to blow through the God Space. He dripped the potion on the rune formation as his words began to increase in power until he was nearly screaming. With the final syllable of his verse, he slammed his palm into the rune formation and it lit up in a red light, and it began to pulsate with power. Mary''s body began to float in the air as the runes lifted off the ground and began to rotate around her with her in the center. Able walked forwards with heavy steps as he held a dagger in his hands walking towards Mary. He held the dagger as he looked at her with an expression of sorrow on his face before he plunged it into her stomach. Mary''s body lurched, and her unconscious face began to morph into one of pain, but she still did not wake up. Blood began to flow out of her wounds, and Able grabbed a plant that he held in robes before feeding it to Mary. He put it in her mouth but realizing that she was unconscious and unable to chew he took it out before resolutely putting it in his own mouth. He began to chew it until it was just a mush before he fed it into Mary''s mouth with his own. After he pushed it all into her mouth he made her swallow it, and she began to cough as her face turned bright red from the medicinal properties. This went on for a few minutes before an ear piercing screech resounded from inside Mary''s body, and a shadow quickly flew out from the wound in her stomach. It had to escape Mary''s body because the plant Able had just fed her was Abala Duncar which was extremely poisonous to spirit bodies, and if they were possessing a body in contact with it they would die. The Spirit tried to fly away, but it ran into the wall created from the runes and was forced back. It screamed at this angry that something was blocking its escape and it began to relentlessly pound on the runes trying to break them to no avail. Able pulled out a bottle from behind him and opened its cap as a suction force began to come out of it drawing the spirit body inside. The spirit shrieked in fear screaming "You have a Spirit Containment Bottle!" and tried even harder to escape. It fought for over ten minutes before it finally ran out of strength and was sucked into the bottle before Able quickly sealed the lid preventing its escape. After making sure the spirit would be unable to escape Able picked up Mary, and took her outside of the rune formation and laid her on the bed as he took out some medicine and applied it to her stomach. Thinking of whoever had done this to his Mary pissed him off to no end. With a glare on his face, he looked towards the spirit that was inside the bottle with malicious intentions. --- In a house in the richer part of Zalfari a man currently was on the floor gasping in for breath as he clutched his head in pain. "DAMNIT" he cursed as he slammed his fist against the floor "THEY UNDID THE POSSESSION!". He stood up with anger on his face as he began to throw things around the room to vent his anger. After calming down he roared "SIMON!". An old man opened the door to the room he was in and politely bowed as he said: "Yes Master?". "Go get the crystal ball ready I need to message him. Our plans are not going as expected" he said as anger was still evident. "Yes, Master Sylvester" the old man bowed again as he exited the room. "I didn''t expect this God to be semi-capable. He was able to figure out his assistant had been possessed, and he figured out how to release the possession in such a short time. I need to be more wary now, as that shitty spirit will surely rat me out under torture" Sylvester said as he rubbed his chin in thought. 68 "Questioning" Able left Mary on the bed as he grabbed the bottle, and headed out of the room. He had a malicious look on his face and was brimming with anger. He had decided that he was going to get answers from this spirit one way or another. ''Since the spirit was already dead there was no need to hold back either'' he thought as an evil grin spread across his face. Able entered another room in the God Space and sealed the door shut as he set the Spirit Containment bottle on a table inside of the room, before opening the spirit shop to look for tools to start his "questioning". He eventually found items that suited his interest, and that would affect spirit bodies which was what he wanted. ====Faith Shop==== ~Weapons~ ?Spirit Spear (5000FP) ?Bone Sword (5000FP) ?Sword of the Damned (10000FP) ?Spirit Paper (1000FP) ?Undead Leather refiner (2500FP) ?Spirit String (1000FP) ?Needles of Agony (10000FP) ?Cleansing Water (10000FP) ?Locked¡ý ============== Able had unlocked a lot of new stuff over the time that he had been growing his dominions and had a lot of new items he could buy. He never looked through them before because he never needed them, but now that he needed one he was satisfied with the items he could purchase. He looked through the items and saw some of them were useless to him right now, but there was a few he wanted to buy. He purchased the Needles of Agony and the Cleansing Water for 20kFP. The reason the cleansing water was so expensive because it could also be used to cure dementia, or poisons and the like. Although it was not powerful enough to full extract a spirit from a possession it still would have hurt the spirit that was in possession of the mortal body. After buying the items that he needed Able opened the sprit bottle releasing the spirit onto the table. The spirit was struggling in the chains it was held in trying to escape glaring at Able as it cursed at him in anger. Able just smiled at this and pulled out the Needles of Agony as he began to question the spirit for answers. Inhuman screams could be heard coming from the room after this for a period of time. --- An hour later the spirit panted in exhaustion as it weakly said "I possessed her in Zalfari! It was when she bumped into my master! He noticed you when you came in and said he could feel the aura around you and knew you were a god, so he wanted to possess you with a spirit. However he was unable to possess you due to your spirit power being too high, so he had to do with your assistant". Able frowned at this and a looming sense of danger began to press down on him. He was being hunted by a higher power. Although higher tier Gods are unable to attack weaker tiered Gods directly they can still control others to do it for them. This was a tactic often used by higher powers to eliminate budding talents from growing into another potential rival. Able again realized how much he needed power because in this world he was considered extremely weak and would be crushed like a bug by any higher power. "You know nothing of who is hunting me down?" Able said as he glared at the spirit. The spirit shook its head as it hurriedly said: "All I know is about Sylvester!" Able frowned before he picked up the needles preparing to kill the spirit. "wait! wait! wait! wait! I know something else! Don''t kill me!" Able motioned him to continue. "Sylvester often contacts his superiors through a crystal ball, and I overheard one time that they work for another God, although I don''t know which one." This confirmed Able''s suspicions and he decided to eliminate Sylvester as soon as possible because he was a danger to him. After he got all the information he needed from the spirit he decided to kill him to prevent any leaking of information. The spirit screamed in fear, as he thought Able would release him for providing him with useful information, but he was sadly wrong. The spirit dissipated as Able poured the cleansing water down its throat eliminating its existence from the world. 69 Hiatus/Dropped until further notice Sorry for any and all inconveniences I have caused to my readers. 70 Prefrence No content 71 The God System Revamped No content