《The God eaters' adventure in a new world》 Chapter 0: Prologue- Onwards to fun! Hello! My name¡¯s Xudo Kui. Currently I don''t think I have ever been so bored in my life, and in case you''re wondering the past six centuries or so have gone by and I''ve pretty much done what I''ve wanted on this planet. In case you''re wondering I was human. WAS. Key-words are important and should be noted and remembered. It started when I accidentally ate a god... and by accidentally I mean I was dying, the god was bored and tired of living(not really, just really bored and kinda stupid) and merged in my body on a whim. Pretty stupid really, he thought shit along the lines of ''It''s so boring, I might as well have some fun~'' and then he merged into my body, but low and behold an unexpected reaction happened and I overpowered him and ate his soul... thus I gained his powers. After that it''s been an uneventful six centuries~ is not what happened to my joy. The god I consumed was a high ranking god on earth (lol) considering how easily I ate the guy I pegged him for a pushover. He was a god of darkness and shape-shifting by the way. I ate him; got his (my) powers and apparently a new ability awoke in me because if I ate another celestial being like a god or their servants I would gain their powers... don''t ask me how I knew that it''s just something you know when you become a god like your powers, abilities, affinities, and other multiversal knowledge. The other gods got pissed and I ate him and their servants. Too bad there wasn''t more. There was only enough gods to give me a couple handfuls of elemental masteries and abilities. Gods taste fucking awesome by the way. After killing all the other gods and eating them I gained control over light, earth, fire, wind, water, lightning and of course the original darkness ability. After three centuries of fighting and then eating the last of the gods, I got pretty bored real quick. So I spent the next two hundred years gaining a complete and comfortable control over the abilities and powers, and where they branch off into. You know the best part about having the abilities the gods have, just all at the same time? ¡°FUSION HAA¡±. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Seriously. I can fuse the abilities which is awesome~ and they look awesome too. Personal favorite would be mixing Darkness and Lightning together to make a black lightning bolt that literally disintegrates anything it touches. At the time I went overboard over how I excited I got about it and accidentally destroyed the Statue of Liberty... meh was all I could say, and then I burst into laughter as I looked at the humans. They were freaking out and it was fuuuuuuunay. Well enough of that and let¡¯s get to the present. After watching over humans and having fun with them in various ways until this point I got bored and destroyed earth. The End. After that I created a portal made of darkness, as Teleportation and shit like that is a branch or another form of the power. If you''re wondering why I destroyed the earth it''s because humans destroyed it to such a point that the planet looked like a fucking dump. Literally, you remember how earth looked in the movie wall-e? Well this was way worse than that. Trust me. Gross. It pissed me off to no end and I put the planet out of its misery. I can be merciful at times~. After becoming a god or rather more like a god eater... I can truly say humans are nasty. Well I am going to teleport to a new world and invade it and eat the gods there. Maybe. If they piss me off. Or I feel like it. Meh we''ll find out. One thing I want though is magic in the world. And NO there''s no magic on earth, the gods had abilities and powers akin to magic but more like a natural ability like telekinesis. Not magic, as it really doesn''t take anything to use. I got the knowledge that magic existed from eating other gods and gaining their knowledge. In a certain edge of the multiverse there is a cluster of galaxies that contain magic. So I decided to teleport there, or rather in that general area. I hope there are elves¡­ I wanna spend some time with some elves and make some demigods maybe? And so begins my journey to the new world~ Onwards to fun! Chapter 1: Impact and magic is impressive. The first thing I see when I step out of the portal is a planet a good three-times the size of Saturn that has massive forests and oceans. There¡¯s even a mountain that is sticking high into the sky, almost out into space. The problem is I¡¯m in orbit. Going down towards the planet fast. Really Fast. Asteroid Fast. I say problem but¡­ I¡¯m a god so it¡¯s not like it¡¯ll kill me, but it''ll still hurt when you land at this speed so I use earth, water and metal variants to control the minerals in my body to strengthen my body to the max temporarily before I do anything else. I highly doubt I can actually die with all my power. The only problem is I like my clothes and yes I can generate new ones but it is a royal pain so I gotta decelerate¡­ *BOOM* Never mind and too late I just put a hole in a mountain the size of three Mount Everest¡¯s. Thank you super defense. I would keep it on all the time but the problem is it takes up a lot of concentration leaving me only able to use maybe one or two other elements at a time. It looks pretty cool in my opinion but now I¡¯m without cloths and to no one¡¯s surprise I have not a single scratch on me. Guess I have to make some clothes now. Fucking annoying gravity, even with a variant of light and darkness I can¡¯t control gravity 100%. Do you think I¡¯m a god? Hahaha! Why yes I am and no there¡¯s not a single person in the multiverse that can slow down at that speed in that short distance, not even me with all my powers. Anyway when you have control over various elements and variants of their powers you can find some pretty creative ways to use them. By mixing darkness, earth, and metal; a variant of earth, I can make clothes for myself better than carbon steel armor plating. You just need to know the elements and how to mix them and being alive more than six centuries gives plenty of time to learn them. The clothes I make are black long pants, black socks and combat boots, a dark grey thin hoodie shirt and a black high collar jacket with short sleeves. For equipment I have some thin black gauntlets with red lightning decals on it and I have a black mask with only eye holes. For a weapon, let¡¯s go with a black katana I made when I first mastered all my powers. It has good compatibility with me, seeing as I know how it was made, made it, and mastered my powers. It¡¯s made from a mix of highly compressed metal I made out of mixing titanium, carbon steel, and darkness. I call it Shade Steel, and yes I know that¡¯s an awesome name. Praise me more~ By using darkness as storage I can hold shit in there, so that¡¯s where I got the shade steal. I did not materialize it out of thin air¡­that would take some time. I have to say though that darkness is the most useful of all my powers. In my opinion teleporting, storage, instant clothing, stealth and much more is way better than elements like fire. Fire is good for warmth and destruction, while the latter is fun it¡¯s not practical and you can¡¯t wear fire. Very well. Back on topic now I think I look pretty cool if you ask me and yes I like dark colors. I¡¯m sure you want to know what I look like so I¡¯ll tell you: I¡¯m six foot six with short black straight hair and a few scars here and there from fighting gods and my life as a human. I look to be around 20 years old and I have no facial hair because I find it annoying. I have a slightly better than normal male Russian-Asian face and no tattoos or markings. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I have a couple different forms that let me use more powers but I¡¯ve changed into a more human looking form besides my black nails, greyish pale skin, red slit eyes and slightly more pointy ears. I guess I look like an evil half elf? I think I¡¯m a good-looking god if I do say so myself, and I¡¯ve been told that by the humans on earth, but after five hundred years of technology advancing, really bad over pollution and staying on a single planet that was polluted and dying beyond belief I think I could have ripped my face off and still have been handsome compared to them. As I said before earth¡¯s state it was in when it was destroyed was¡­gross and the humans looked even worse. Some were uglier than Jabba the Hutt. Fugly. Well let¡¯s get back on topic¡­ I made a hole in a mountain and somehow it¡¯s still standing. I guess the elements are more durable here than on earth. Or perhaps it¡¯s the mana on the planet that powers magic. Anyway I gotta get out of here so I teleport outside the hole to have a look around. It¡¯s night time and I because I¡¯m a god of multiple elements I can see just fine. I notice the mountain I crashe-emerged from and¡­ Fuck this mountain¡¯s big! I thought I went through the mountain but I barely went halfway¡­ and the amount of damage I did was minimal? What the hell? I was a two meter sized asteroid going faster than one. Talk about tough. Hmm? This feeling¡­ is this mana? It feels pretty good, and if I look close enough I can see some lights. Interesting. I think there was some sort of heavy-duty barrier here, but I smashed it¡­ oops. My bad? That explains why I did so little damage¡­but if that¡¯s so than magic is impressive to be able to suppress to much damage. If I did that on earth I would kill billions. They¡¯d be lucky to live in that area within a hundred years with all the damage that would be caused but here the magic barrier absorbed most of the blow and I can see the mountain is mana-rich compared to the surrounding areas. Magic and mana huh, oh the things I could do. Well I need to leave the area and start testing out how to use mana. I fly up and see a giant fucking tree that looks like a mix between a pine tree and oak tree about three miles away. The damn tree is the size of half this ridiculous mountain and is surrounded by a large lake. The trees surrounding the lake are no joke either. They are pretty much living skyscrapers. I can see some lights coming from the trees surrounding the lake-sea. The lights look like both mana made lights and fire? I think I¡¯ll go there. It seems like a good place to start and if I remember correctly elves like trees and big ones at that. Maybe it¡¯s an elven city? Hope so. Onwards to the Tree! I''ll try posting as often as I can. I could really use some help as I have never done something like write a story or novel/book before so anything constructive that can help me would be a huge help. I''m not confident enough to put a shit ton of stuff on at one time, so currently if anyone is actually reading this you guys will have to do with these short chapters for now until I can make longer ones. -I edited the post after someone pointed out that I didn''t explain how he took the impact going at such speeds. Thank you for pointing it out. I''ll try and find a way to explain most of his powers, what they could do initially, how he uses them, and how they changed when they entered his body and became his own. Chapter 2: Mana, Miscalculations and First Encounters I¡¯m currently flying over a sea of trees. This fucking forest is the bigger than 21st century New York. What the hell? This place is ridiculous. I know I said that this planet was covered in forests but this planet might be much bigger than I thought. I¡¯m already glad I cut my ties with earth and came here. It feels like it¡¯s gonna be so much fun. The night here is so clear and the air is beyond refreshing. I wonder if this was what earth looked like several hundred years before I was born? Meh doesn''t matter anyway. Speaking of clear nights there are¡­two moons and a half of one? What? What the fuck could have blown up a moon? Well I blew up earth so I¡¯m gonna take a wild guess and say¡­ a god? I¡¯m calling it. It looks pretty cool though. Once again this place is awesome. Back on topic I¡¯m almost to the tree¡­ and like I thought this is pretty much a living mountain. I wouldn''t even be surprised if a god lived here. I doesn¡¯t feel like there are any gods anywhere near here unless they¡¯re concealing themselves like I am, though I don¡¯t think I would work on me but with what I¡¯ve seen magic can do I think I need to learn how to use it soon. Thinking about it I may be concealing myself but I have no idea about my mana. I hope so, because I should have god level amounts of mana¡­because I¡¯m a fucking god. Now in front of this tree I see clearly that I could fit a decent sized house on this giant fucking tree¡­branch. I¡¯ll stay here till morning rises and practice messing with my mana. Showing up in the middle of the night looking like me is never good. I said before what I look like and if I show up somewhere ten times out of ten I¡¯m always met with hostilities, suspicion or misunderstandings. I don¡¯t want that so I¡¯ll let whoever¡¯s down there wake up and be bustling and busy before I stroll in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Morning has come and I can move my mana around in my body with ease. I made it materialize a bit out of my hands and accidentally blew my arm off. Oops. It hurt pretty fucking badly and it¡¯s a good thing it was night when it blew off otherwise people would have freaked the fuck out, if out of nowhere shit blows up like that. After I blew my arm off it took about five minutes to grow my arm back to full strength. I could have done it in a minute but it would have been hasty to do that and it wouldn¡¯t be at full strength. I got so good at this because fighting other gods with one arm is not a fun experience so learning your anatomy and how to use a rapid regrowth accelerate in your body is priceless in fights. It took normal gods a couple months to do that on earth and when I suddenly regrew an arm in front of one of them in one of my battles the look on his face was too good. Why? Because that¡¯s NOT normal even for a god and it scared him shitless and I killed him and ate him after that. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. All¡¯s well that ends well. Well it¡¯s morning, I¡¯m getting off track and I really want to see what these tree people are and what they¡¯re like. I should probably come from the direction that¡¯s not from the giant tree in case they worship the thing. Don¡¯t want to look like a fucking messiah or the next Jesus now do I? No I do not. I arrive at a dirt path or maybe a road? Can¡¯t tell and I don¡¯t care so I¡¯ll just take it to the tree people. Looking around I can see some animals and they¡¯re mildly different compared to the ones on earth. There¡¯s a rabbit with bug wings and saber teeth over there¡­ kinda gross and a bad first impression for the animals of this world, but the giant four-armed gorilla with tiger stripes looks fucking awesome. It has a sort of sage beard that¡¯s gold and black like its fur, it looks pretty cool. After about an hour and a half of walking I¡¯m almost here and I now realize I didn''t have to go that far. Fuck me and my over cautiousness. I don¡¯t get hungry or thirsty as a god but I like to eat, and I prefer it if it tastes good and right now I could go for something to eat. I¡¯ll deal with it later because I see some people now. They¡¯re¡­Elves! Yes! I called it! Hahahahaha I¡¯m a fucking genius! Nobody would have ever thought elves lived in a tree city surrounded by nature! I haven¡¯t been noticed yet so I think it might be a good idea to put my hood on because I don¡¯t exactly look like the hero of justice and savior of the world, much less like a normal citizen. Thinking about it I look more akin to a demon probably. Maybe I¡¯ll grow some horns to fit in with the demon crowd if I come across any? As I continue walking with my hood on others start to notice me. The elves are whispering to themselves and some left earlier in a hurry jumping from tree to tree. Like ninja. Cool. As I look around more closely there are buildings in the trees that look like they grew from it. From high in the sky, on giant tree branches, to in the tree and on ground level there are tons of buildings¡­tree houses? I don¡¯t know, but that¡¯s pretty much what they are, but I¡¯ll keep calling them buildings. I should probably call out to them one of them now so they don¡¯t suddenly attack me¡­ so I¡¯ll pick the nice looking lady over by something that looks like a¡­store? Maybe she¡¯s some kind of food vendor? There are some fruits and other foods¡­I think¡­ but there¡¯s also other shit¡­ Meh. Fuck it. ¡°Hello! Can you help me?¡±- Me ¡°N-nh?ng g¨¬ ¦Ê?¦Í¦Å¦Ó¦Å mu?n?! ¡°-Vendor Elf ¡°¡­¡±-Me ¡°§µ§Þ§Þ§Þ§Þ¡­th?a ?ng ?¡±-Vendor Elf ¡°¡­¡±-Me Fuck. Here''s another chapter, hope you enjoy! I''m trying to make all the chapters i write get longer and longer as I write more. Feel free to comment on what you think because anything helps, and It''s always welcome. I''ll try to come out with a couple chapters tomorrow. Chapter 3: Twos, Threes, Fours and a new Language. I can¡¯t believe, me: a fucking six century old god, even held onto the idea the people of this planet would speak the same language as me, and not another one. This is the first time I have ever felt this stupid and ashamed. It¡¯s a new feeling being ashamed. I don¡¯t like it. I won¡¯t be making such a blunder again. While I¡¯m standing here in silence I can see some groups of people who look like guards or possibly a type of military police? Double fuck because it seems I didn¡¯t think that it¡¯d look so conspicuous. There¡¯s not a single inch of my actual body being shown because of my clothes. Maybe I should have taken my mask off when I put my hood on? I probably look like some terrorist or assassin. While I was having these thoughts my surroundings have changed. It seems that I¡¯m surrounded by a bunch of elves with bows and spears. Very original weapons. I never would think elves use those. I know I¡¯m suspicious looking and all, but is that a reason to bring out so many people just for little ol¡¯ me? Oh? It looks like someone¡¯s going to speak? If I can hear enough of the language I should be able to figure it out, though it will take some time. About a day? Sooner if I can realize some similarities to languages from earth. I learnt a lot of the languages from earth so I should be able to translate it to a certain degree. Here comes someone in some nice looking armor, possibly a commander or captain? Her armor has many details on it and intricate carvings. She¡¯s about a head shorter than me with silver hair and a face that would make any woman jealous: The typical beautiful elf face¡­ not. She¡¯s way more beautiful than the other elves here and looks to be in her twenties, not that you can tell with elves. They¡¯re pretty much immortal in terms of life span. They don¡¯t really die of old age. In the words of man she¡¯s a 15/10. She has a long bow that¡¯s made from some metal¡­ is it that? Mithril, the Elven Iron? Her armor doesn¡¯t cover her whole body, just parts that need to be protected and it has some fancy leather looking cloth protecting other areas that the armor doesn¡¯t. It¡¯s not seductive per se but it is alluring. Kinda hard to put it into words. I¡¯m assuming it¡¯s to make movement unimpaired and keep agility at a high. Elves don¡¯t tank after all, they¡¯re speed and agility fighters after all. While thinking this she speaks. ¡°D?ng l?i!¡±-Elven Guard Captain? ¡°B?n l¨¤ ai ¦Ê¦Á¦É ¦Ð?? ¦Ó¦Ï ¦Ê?¦Í¦Á¦Ó¦Å kry hier?¡±- Elven Guard Captain? ¡°Me a-no a-speaky your a-language!¡±-Me ¡°nh?ng g¨¬?¡±- Elven Guard Captain? ¡°Keep talking! The more you talk the more I can understand¡­ not like you understand what I¡¯m saying anyway¡­¡±-Me ¡°?i?u g¨¬ ¦Å?¦Ò¦Á¦É s¨º?¡±- Elven Guard Captain? ¡°Hey¡­ this language¡­ sounds a lot like FUCKING JIBERISH!¡±-Me That seems to have surprised them? This is annoying. What a mistake! I should have observed them more from the shadows and learnt their language over the course of the next week. Triple Fuck! That would have been a great idea at the time! *sigh*-Me I think I should show them some skin because I still look pretty suspicious. I take my mask and hood off and there reaction is¡­ surprised? They probably thought I was a human or something, not an evil looking half elf. While they¡¯re surprised I say: ¡°I¡­AM¡­XUDO!¡±-Me ¡°¡­¡±-Elves Silence. Utter silence. Ugh. The silence is killing me. Awkward. Too awkward. It almost feels creepy. The look on her face shows shock and confusion. I take a step forward and they take up arms ready to strike. There are something¡¯s that piss me off with a passion. Being falsely accused is one. I haven¡¯t done anything at all since I came here¡­ except put a hole in a mountain but that was unavoidable. Not my fault. Another thing would be underestimated. That was one of the reasons I had a war with the gods on earth. A new god doesn¡¯t show up all the time so one of them thought to teach me a lesson on the hierarchy. He found himself in my stomach. While reminiscing again the beautiful elven guard says something. ¡°??n ¦Ì¦Á¦Æ? ¦Ì¦Á? ons sal ¨¬m m?t ng??i n¨¤o ?¨® ¦Ð¦Ï¦Ô kan vertaal.¡±- Elven Guard Captain? She¡¯s motioning me to follow her so I do. The others are still cautious of me and have their weapons at me. Not how I wanted to have my first encounter with sentient life on this planet. She¡¯s leading me to this giant white tree, completely different to the surrounding trees that are brown or green. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The tree must be some sort of important building because I only see one like this. When we get to the tree I see a giant door that leads to a dome like building embedded in the tree. Think of the tree as a giant cylinder that as it goes up there are sometimes squares and other shapes that look like the tree grew them out. These fucking trees are stupidly big. It¡¯s like I said before, giant fucking living skyscrapers. When the door opened most of the guards stopped to wait outside and only a few went in with me and the Elven Guard Captain. As we entered the building I concluded that this was a library. A giant fucking library that I assume as the more floors one goes up the more secure the knowledge is and how valuable it would be. I tried talking to the few there but they just got more startled and had confused faces. As funny as they looked this was getting repetitive and annoying. The Elven Guard Captain led me to a platform that I assumed was an elevator. I guess it was powered by magic because after she placed her hand on a piece of wood that had dozens of crystals, one of them glowed and her hand glowed green and the elevator started moving. The elevator ride was about ten minutes long and uneventful. When we got to the destination it was a room filled with nothing but crystals. Impressive but kinda bright and for some reason it went well with the tree. I thought it would look stupid but it goes well for some reason. Weird. Inside the room was this elf that looked to be about thirty with blond hair and a well maintained goatee. He was about the same size as the Elven Guard Captain. He had on clothes that insinuated and practically screamed: ¡°SCHOLAR¡± We walked over and the guards gestured for me to sit down, which I did. They scholar brought some food and something I assumed was tea. It tasted pretty good, and after I took a sip he started talking. It lasted hours and hours and was utterly boring, and I have no idea why the fuck I was receiving all this attention. -Possibility A: they treat guests really well. -Possibility B: This is suspicious as fuck. Let¡¯s go with ¡®B¡¯ and try to talk to him. After all those hours I can conclude that this language sounds like a mix between Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Latin. I can roughly understand him to a point but it still sounds like a bunch of random languages. I did learn that his name was Marnak, and the Guard Captains name was Vexna. I told them my name as best as I could and I think they got it. After about five hours it looked like Vexna was tired of it and left. I was a little disappointed but Marnak and his overly excited talking is the best way for me to learn the language. It seems he understands what I¡¯m trying to do and helps with it by pointing out various things and telling the names of them. After hours more it¡¯s turning night and the crystal room starts to light up. I wasted all day in here and have a good understanding of this language and how it¡¯s used. ¡°Thanks for teaching me the language; it was troublesome not knowing it.¡±-Me ¡°No problem I¡¯m glad I could help, but just a quick question.¡±-Marnak A question huh, well it can¡¯t hurt. ¡°Go ahead and ask, you¡¯ve really helped me but I so have some questions myself.¡±-Me You gotta know basic stuff like currency, countries, etc., pretty much common knowledge. ¡°Of course, of course¡­It¡¯s just¡­¡±-Marnak I got a bad feeling about this. ¡°It¡¯s just?¡±-Me ¡°Did you have anything to do with the incident on the Sacred Mountain?¡±-Marnak Oh shit. ¡°Sacred Mountain¡­?¡±-Me He gets up and tells me to follow, which I do. We arrive at the window and in the horizon I see a giant mountain with a big hole in it that has the last of today¡¯s sunlight escaping from it. A nice spectacle in my opinion but my bad feeling just got a whole lot stronger. He points to the mountain and says: ¡°That is the Sacred Mountain. Yesterday there was no hole there but there was an explosion last night. So I have a question: Did YOU, who came FROM the direction of the Sacred Mountain, have ANYTHING to do with that hole appearing?¡± Quadruple Fuck. Her''s another chapter and while I couldn''t make another chapter today because of personal reasons but I did make it longer! I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading. As always constructive criticism always helps. Chapter 4: Easy Dodge and Master Manipulation New Chapter!! Enjoy!! ¡°That is the Sacred Mountain. Yesterday there was no hole there but there was an explosion last night. So I have a question: Did YOU, who came FROM the direction of the Sacred Mountain, have ANYTHING to do with that hole appearing?¡±-Marnak I don¡¯t have any more fucks to give. I came here to here to have fun for the next millennia or so and this happens right off the bat. I have no plan of telling him I¡¯m a god but that doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t man up to my mistakes. It¡¯s just that sometimes you have to fib a little, and it just so happens that I have the perfect scapegoat. ¡°Yes, I put a hole their but I¡¯d like to explain it before you go off assuming anything.¡±-Me ¡°¡­okay. I¡¯ll listen to what you have to say, and then we¡¯ll decide on what to do afterwards.¡±-Marnak Perfect. ¡°Okay good! I have a question first though; how are the current relations with humans right now?¡±-Me ¡°Why?¡±-Marnak ¡°It¡¯s because I have been secluding myself for several centuries until now and I¡¯d like to know the current relations with the humans, because what I have to say has to do with humans.¡±-Me ¡°Okay I guess¡­ right now our relationship is strained and most humans are taken captive or killed. This happened because around a century ago humans started enslaving other races and it¡¯s been pretty bad for the Elf and Anima tribes.¡±-Marnak Marnak says that with his head low. It must be pretty bad right now, but I¡¯d expect no less from humans. Humans have a habit of enslavement. On earth it started who knows when and it never really ended. Throughout history there were attempts to end it but it never did. The deed of slavery just got darker and darker till the only way you could find slaves was if you went to the underworld of human society. Hell even when I blew up earth slavery was still going on, and it was actually on the rise. However thanks to that I think it should be pretty easy to push the blame. Wait¡­what is the Anima tribe? ¡°What is the Anima Tribe?¡±-Me ¡°Hmm? They¡¯re like human animal hybrids that are more attuned towards nature like us Elves¡­¡±-Marnak ¡°Oh they¡¯re Beastman? That makes sense now.¡±-Me So they were Beastman¡­ better take note to call them Anima instead. Must be Anima from Animal. Creative. ¡°Beastman¡­ that term hasn¡¯t been use for four centuries¡­ how old are you anyway?¡± -Marnak ¡°Ah! I¡¯m six-hundred and twenty-five.¡±-Me ¡°What?! You¡¯re older than me?! That makes that you would call them Beastman then.¡± -Marnak It seems that we got off track. ¡°Anyway back to what I was saying¡­¡±-Me ¡°Oh yes, sorry about that.¡±-Marnak Really. You better be. I¡¯m giving you an excuse to go to war and free the enslaved. If humans get wiped out in the process, then that¡¯s all the better. I don¡¯t need my second planet to be destroyed by the likes of humans again. It¡¯d be better to leave it in the hands of Nature lovers like Elves or beast-err Anima. ¡°I was traveling here from where I was secluding myself. I spent time mastering my abilities and when I was traveling by that mountain I encountered humans.¡±-Me ¡°I snuck up on them to see what they were doing, and I noticed them trying to break into the barrier. When I got too close they attacked with this weird magic.¡±-Me Pause to let it sink in then the big reveal! ¡°When I countered back with my abilities it created a weird reaction and created that explosion. I was sent flying and lost all my supplies. Pretty much everything you see on me is what I got left after the explosion.¡± ¡°¡­¡±-Everyone in the room I forgot about the guards in the room but from the looks on their faces I can see that they¡¯re super pissed. I hope it¡¯s not at me. ¡°¡­if what you say is true then¡­ why did it react with your ¡®abilities¡¯? That was just too big of an explosion to be caused by something like that¡­ and why would the humans be here¡­?¡±-Marnak Too easy. GG. ¡°The reason they reacted like that was because I think the attack they used drained mana directly from other attacks as a counter to further power theirs, but my abilities don¡¯t use mana. The reason for them being their might have been for the resources. I don¡¯t know if you know this but the minerals and materials in that mountain are extremely mana dense. If they were mined they would make the highest grade equipment.¡± They seem confused now. Marnak though looks like hell has frozen over¡­then erupted. Ahh¡­the hardest part of this is not laughing. Too be honest so far my excuses and lies have been pretty good. I even gave some truth here and there. ¡°Recourses¡­SCUM!! Thinking of even using the mountain for something like that! Humans and their greed have no end! They will only be satisfied if they ruin everything that is not theirs!¡± ¨CMarnak Yep. Pissed. Super pissed. ¡°I will not lie and say I had nothing to do with it, but it was self-defense against the humans who attacked me. I did not know that would happen, and I had no idea magic had advanced like that. I can also understand your anger, but I think you should calm down so we can continue the conversation.¡±-Me I seem to have gotten his attention and he¡¯s starting to calm down. For a scholar type I thought he wouldn¡¯t get so upset over something like this. I guess that mountain was something very important. Under normal circumstances they¡¯d probably try to execute me, but with this false info and giving the final push towards human exterminat-err, war with the humans. ¡°I understand, and I¡¯m sorry for showing you something so shameless.¡± -Marnak Humble. I like it. He has good character. I don¡¯t dislike people like him. ¡°No problem at all. I can understand having something you value being taken and destroyed.¡±-Me ¡°Is that so¡­ Thank you for telling us this, but I have a question¡­ you said your ability doesn¡¯t use mana right? If so then what does it use?¡±-Marnak Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. And here comes a surprise left hook! Not! I was wondering when he was gonna ask. It sucks giving this info away but it¡¯s not necessarily too big of a disadvantage, just it¡¯s easier to get the jump on people like that. Like this crystal room we¡¯re in. I¡¯m pretty sure these are mana disrupting crystals or something like that. A mage would be worthless and powerless in here. ¡°It uses life force. Not much at a time. Barely any really but the more powerful I make it, the more life force it takes. If I was human I would have died when I was twenty.¡±-Me Technically that is when I stopped being human and ¡®died¡¯¡­ but he doesn¡¯t need to know that. ¡°Life force¡­huh. What a unique ability. How long do you think you will live then if you keep using it?¡± ¨CMarnak Are you concerned for me? Thank you but it is worth nothing as I have no life span. ¡°My race has no life span. We do not die of old age. We just get more and more powerful. The only time we die is during childhood or when we are tired of living and obliterate our own bodies. The likes of humans could only wish to hurt scratch someone who has lived for more than a thousand years.¡±-Me Well they couldn¡¯t even wish to scratch my clothes but I don¡¯t want to seem like I¡¯m a god. Even though I am one, being worshiped is creepy to me. It¡¯s not like it empowers me any either. ¡°Is that so¡­ then do you mind saying what race you are then?¡± ¨CMarnak Nope. ¡°That¡¯s a secret. I don¡¯t plan on telling anymore about my race to a stranger, even if you helped me.¡±-Me He gives me an understanding smile and says ok. With that done he goes to give a report but I stop him. ¡°If you¡¯re going to report it to the Elf Elders then do you think I could give my ideas on how to proceed?¡±-Me ¡°Sure, you¡¯ve helped us very much today and I could use your help explaining to them anyways.¡± -Marnak After that we make our way to the elevator and when I thought we were going down, we went up. I asked why and he told me this was the royal palace for the high elves who make the up the council of elders. I was shocked. Not only was this not a library, they let me in the royal palace. That¡¯s some stupidly lax security. Along the way I asked some other questions: ¡°What races are still left after all this time? Have any gone extinct?¡±-Me ¡°The Orcs and Goblins have formed a society together after the humans started doing extermination crusades on them. The same goes for the Mermaids, Sirens and Harpies. The Anima secluded themselves deeper in the forests after uniting all Anima races. The same goes for us elves, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dark Elves, and the Druids. The humans continue try to purge the Devil¡¯s and the Faeries haven¡¯t been seen for two hundred years. The Dragons were never bothered by what humans did until some were attacked. The dragons lashed back and took out the human empire that attacked them. The other races are more or less scattered around and being hunted down until extinctions.¡± ¨CMarnak He finished that with a pained look. It seems that he doesn¡¯t hold hate for other races, but actually pities them. Apparently goblins and orcs aren''t as savage as they once were. Still exhibitionists but they don¡¯t kidnap or raid villages anymore. Apparently they even created some magic and magic tools and technology for mining. Very surprising. My image of them being dumb, stupid rape-happy kidnappers was shattered. I can understand the dragons though. They¡¯re called God-Killers for a reason. If they rival Gods, then mortals should keep their tongue in their mouths and their dicks in the pants. After we get to the room where the council is Marnak and I explained what I said happened. When we finished explaining what happened I told them my ideas of how to approach the human problem. I told them that they should contact all the other races besides human and ask for a meeting. They all seemed bewildered and confused, and some angry that I was even still here. They didn¡¯t seem to like the idea of me being here to explain in the first place. They¡¯re not called elders for no reason. At least they have some common sense. After I told them what they should do in the meeting they calmed down. I told them to make a war-pact and alliance instead of immediately attacking the humans. They said that it¡¯s impossible to unite all the races together, but I reminded them that humans can take on two or three races at a time, so they would need all the races. Humans are like cockroaches. They just keep getting more resilient. I told them I would be a messenger to the other races and told them to give me three years¡¯ time to do it. It¡¯s definitely not because I want to explore and meet the other races and have my fun. Nope. No way that¡¯s it. I told them I would help them fight and it would give them time to prepare for war and they would even get an ally or two either way. I reminded them that acting out of immediate feelings would cause their tribe and country to fall. They agreed and I got myself three years¡¯ worth of time, a lot of information, and some nice resources that were given to me for free. I can''t believe they bought all those bluffs. I almost feel bad for the humans, but humans destroyed my family when I was human, and I watched as they slowly killed and tortured earth. They''re just pests that need to go, but with this maybe I can exterminate those pests. Today was a really eventful day, but I don¡¯t think I''ve had so much fun in a long time. I have classes Monday through Thursday so posting won''t be everyday, but as soon as possible. Most likely every other day or two. Thank you to all those reading and knowing someone actually likes what I wrote is really awesome. Thanks for reading and the next update will come Thursday or Friday! Chapter 5: Knowledge and Surprise! Hey guys sorry for the late update, and thank you for reading the story! i was really surprised to see so many people reading it and I gotta say thanks for the support and I hope you keep reading. I was told by my Humanities teacher that he wants a research paper turned in next month so I''ll be working on that while I continue writing this. Hope you enjoy the chapter and there''s gonna be at least one more before Sunday! Hopefully two. Enjoy. P.S.- Sorry for it being an info dump only, but I tried to limit how boring it is as much as possible. Sorry if you fall asleep on your keyboard. I spent a month or so learning all the things that are normal in this world, from geography to the money systems and history. Thanks to the Royal library of the elves I was able to learn it quickly and even got a decent amount of control over my mana and how to use magic. It was like I thought: Magic depends on imagination and how much power is put into it. Spells are the basic theory and formula to constricting mana into the sequence that is magic. The more someone uses spells the easier they are to control and with a good enough picture of what you want to happen it does. Simple and very easy. After I got used to one of the spells called ¡®Torch¡¯ I tried using my ability to manipulate it and its power. By adding more mana into it became quite big and turned into something that resembled Pyro Bomb. Spells are categorized into nine categories. Each element is categorized differently based on effects but with the same ranking system. For example fire starts off with Tier 1: Spark, Tier 2: Torch, Tier 3: Fireball, Tier 4: Flamethrower, Tier 5: Pyro Bomb, Tier 6: Fire Field, Tier 7: Infernal Pillars, Tier 8: Hell Break, and Tier Nine: Infernal Exodus. Of course there is way more spells than just those, but it¡¯s just an example and I have no intention of going through every spell. It basically goes from the weakest spell anyone can use as it cost near to no mana, even for someone with a very small amount of mana, to the strongest spells which are the last two tiers and only gods can use them. Apparently Devil King Ixicus Xeronas, the current devil king can use tier eight magic but that¡¯s just a rumor that Marnak told me. As for magic types there is: Fire Magic, Earth Magic, Air/Wind Magic, Water Magic, Lightning Magic, Light/Holy Magic, Dark/Black Magic, Void/Spatial Magic, Arcane Magic, Chaos Magic, Nature/Healing Magic and quite a bit more magic that are race specific. Dragons actually have a transformation magic that lets the take a more human form, besides the pointed ears and teeth and scales on their bodies. It¡¯s really more like a reptilian Elf form. I can¡¯t wait for the chance to try out my magic while travelling. I might just have to stop at a human village to experiment a bit. Anyway, back on the topic on hand: The continent of Emersica. From what I saw, the people of this world have barely explored any of this planet and only stayed on Emersica, and I¡¯ll be damned if I don¡¯t travel the whole world. The continent of Emersica is comprised of all the sentient beings countries. The land is separated into several countries with various different names and beliefs. The Elven country is called Faunaste, the Devil kingdom is called Levista, The Anima country is called Wildaen, and the Goblins and Orcs named their country Garna. The Alliance made by the Harpies, Sirens, and Mermaids was called the Caostul Alliance, which means coastal alliance, and their country is really a series of giant islands and they span across the whole continent of Emersica, and those races stay there. The total land mass of those islands is equal to the size of Russia. They don¡¯t normally interfere unless it¡¯s to kill humans or anyone who enters the water by sea. The Faeries were located on a floating continent called Xixis and after the humans tried to capture it for themselves they were repelled, so the Faeries developed a way to control and cloak the floating island and never appeared before any race again. There are sometimes sightings of the island but it¡¯s really random and it cannot be tracked except by the gods. The Dragons live in the Dragonaut Ranges, which are the mountain ranges in the center of the continent. The lizardmen are Anima of the reptilian and amphibious variant and they¡¯re called Draconians. Draconians have a sort of evolution that lets them turn into full-fledged Dragons. I¡¯m not sure how their evolution works. The Draconians live in Dragonaut Ranges with the Dragons as their protectors and they view them as gods, which they pretty much are. The Dwarves live in Maenic, which is near Garna and have a friendly relation with it. The Dwarves are the ones who educated and civilized them from beasts and they have a tight-relationship and prosper together. Really, what the fuck?! The country which, is home to what used to be the two stupidest races is one of the most prosperous countries and they learned everything they know from the Dwarves. This was such a shock I spit out the tea I was drinking onto the book and almost ruined it. If it wasn¡¯t for the book being magically protected it would be ruined. I was completely blown away by this. It makes me wonder how humans fucked up so bad in this world. They¡¯re even worse than they were on earth. Vampires were hunted down to near extinction, and nobody even knows if they still exist or not. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Once again, a result of humans. So many achievements for humanity! Even now they¡¯re trying to be the only sentient race! There are too many types of animals and monsters to count. People call them monsters because of the way they look, but in reality they are just mana-affected animals. There are many other races but that¡¯s for another time or if we come across any. For some reason all the countries keep the same currency. It¡¯s probably a way to keep everything organized and not confused. The currency consists of Gald, Gold, High Silver, Silver, Copper, and Lesser Copper coins. It goes ten LC (Lesser Copper) coins to make a Copper coin, ten Copper coins to make a Silver Coin, and so on and so on. In the end it takes one-hundred of each lower coin to make one coin if you look at it like that. If it was just Copper, Silver and Gold then it would be one-hundred Copper to for a Silver and one-hundred silver for a Gold. However with the lesser coins, it makes it easier to trade and use it as money. Easy to understand and easy to use. The history is too biased as I only have the Elf point of view, so the only thing I can say is that the Elves are on¡­ reasonably ok relations with every other race except for human, so after I visit other libraries or find more sources of information I¡¯ll explain it then. Well that¡¯s all for now because I¡¯m going to start traveling to other countries tomorrow to get their alliance for human eradication! Yay! Over the past month I got to know several people very well. A few of the council members who softened up to me after the first discussion and some others besides the first ones I met. I got close to Marnak and his family and spent a lot of time with Vexna! Marnak has two boys and a daughter who look like him and his wife, Verna. And speaking of his wife, she¡¯s a fucking bombshell so to speak. The reason why is because her sister is Vexna and trust me when I say you could see the family resemblance. Marnak is three-hundred and four, and his wife is four-hundred or so. She wouldn¡¯t tell me. She just gave me a death glare. -Note to self: Women¡¯s age is sensitive no matter where you go. Marnak told me where her age is around and I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t be getting any, anytime soon. Vexna is Verna¡¯s younger sister and she¡¯s around two-hundred and fifty and I¡¯ve spent most of my time in the last month or so with Vexna. It only took me a week to learn all that and the rest of the time I was vacationing and practicing magic and how to manipulate it with my powers. Currently I think I can go up to Tier six as the only part of the library I was allowed in; even with my semi-close relation with Marnak and the council, had only Tier one and two books on mana, mana manipulation, magic, magic types and magic spells. I say Tier six but that¡¯s the power level according to Vexna, and that¡¯s with a Tier two spell. Ohh¡­I can¡¯t wait for when I can get more spells to have fun with. I created a few of my own but I need more information on the higher Tiers. The time I spent in Faunaste was great! I was able to spend a lot of time with Vexna and it¡¯s definitely leading somewhere. If you know what I mean. Though I say that I won¡¯t be able to confirm that anytime soon because I leave tomorrow and I¡¯ve only now been able to see that she¡¯s starting to have feelings towards me. As happy as I am, why couldn¡¯t she have those earlier? I¡¯m sure the reason why was because she was still cautious of me like everyone else still is, but she can tell I don¡¯t mean any real harm. To elves at least. She started warming up to me but No! The fateful day of my three year departure is tomorrow! Woe is me! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the morning I was getting prepared to leave when Vexna came running up to me. I was surprised to see her but the conversation we had surprised me even more. ¡°Hey! What are you doing here? I thought you had a meeting with the council elders today?¡±-Me ¡°Yeah¡­ I had it earlier¡­and¡­well¡­¡±-Vexna ¡°Hmm?¡±-Me ¡°I was¡­ given permission to go with you on your journey!¡±-Vexna ¡°Huh¡­? How? What about your job?¡±-The Surprised Me ¡°I told them you could use some assistance if you¡¯re going to go across the whole continent for us¡­ plus I wanted to¡­¡±-Vexna ¡°Is that so¡­ Thank you, that makes me very happy.¡±-Me While saying this she was blushing very noticeably and it made her look even more beautiful. And so like that I gained the best possible companion and really the only one I would want. When she told me I was shocked on the outside but was celebrating like I just won the lottery on the inside. The only thing going through my head was ¡®Banzai!~¡¯ I¡¯ll just pretend I didn¡¯t hear that last part for her sake. And so with that I began my journey with some knowledge and my beautiful companion. This is gonna be a great three years! BAM! Chapter End! More this week~ *I edited a part someone pointed out to me about the money. If someone still finds it confusing or anything else tell me and i''ll work to change it. What to do? I have a writers block I guess because i can''t figure out how i want to make this next chapter and the chapter after it. So I''m going to ask the people who read my story what they want to happen. I had wrote it before but by everything that could go wrong with it did, and Microsoft word crashed and I lost my progress. I was going to rewrite it but I had second thoughts about it and now i''m stuck. I have a general idea on how it might go but there are different scenarios like when to come out and say: ''I am a God!'' or to continue it until they come across someone who figures it out. Basically it will go one of three ways probably: 1. MC tells Vexna he''s a god one or two months into the trip. 2. Halfway through the journey they come across a being that can sense he''s a god and the cat''s out of the bag. 3. When he visits Dragonaut Mountain Ranges(Dragon Country) a high ranking dragon figures out he''s a god. It will basically turn into one of those three no matter what and I can''t chose. I initially picked two, lost the progress and started to write something for all of them. I''m stuck and can''t figure it out, and also I thought there should be a chapter that describes his powers and other shit like that. If I do that it will either be a .5 chapter or something or it will be in a normal chapter and make it a lot longer. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Also in case anyone is wondering, the MC hates humans for multiple reasons and will be explained later. He hates them and wants to kill them all for the most part. Regarding the other races though, he doesn''t want to kill them but he won''t feel much even if he did. Except of course love interests and shit like that. He''s a god who eats other gods and blew up a world, so he will be extremely cruel to the humans so get over it, though the level of how graphic it will be will depend on how my day went. I know it''s kinda stupid getting a writers block with only five chapters, but I would like for this to go well for my first story and therefore I will go about writing this so that it looks good and the end to it is good as well.. At least in my eyes. I would appreciate any help given: tips, pointers, what I need to work on, what you want, how it could go down, even character names that might be good. Pretty much anything because I got a brain-fart right now and it''s not going away. Thanks for any help and sorry for getting your hopes up if anyone wanted to read a new chapter. I''ll probably delete this post after I get the next couple chapters out, and I have other ideas for stories I might try posting later after I write them out. Chapter 6: The Anima and Arrival Sorry for not releasing for a while. RL hit hard and it''s still hitting. I realize i hadn''t released anything after i got a message reminding me. I''m very sorry for not notifying or saying anything. Also thank you for all the feedback about how people wanted the plot for this arc to go. I have several ideas i''ve been thinking up and building on for other stories, so i was wondering if someone could teach me or show me a link on how to do tables. There won''t be any in this story but I want to make a virtual reality story down the line, but not any time soon. i also posted a chapter of a story i''m not sure if i''ll continue. I wrote it before i even thought of this story and ended up finishing it up and posting it to see if anyone would even like the concept or how it would continue: http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1492 If anyone likes it tell me if they want it or not. If not oh well, if so please put some guesses on what you think is gonna happen and some criticism about my grammar. Also sorry for the short chapter I just didn''t want people to think I stopped writing this story. The first destination was Wildaen, and then we¡¯ll go to Garna and then Levista. Those are the three countries that are most likely to help us in that order. After that we¡¯ll travel to the Islands of the Caostul Alliance, and then we¡¯ll go to the Dragonaut Mountain Ranges. The council told us to not even bother with asking the Dragons, but I don¡¯t know. I have a feeling that me and the Dragons could really get along. I mean I love to eat, they love to eat. I like to fight, they like to fight. I eat gods, they eat gods. I don¡¯t know if you can see the similarities but I sure can. So much in common! Literally. The trip to the Anima border from the Elven Capital takes one month. Of course I could get there under one hour, but I have my very lovely companion Vexna with me. The only problem is that there is a translator with us and it¡¯s kind of hard to flirt with her when this fucking cockblock is here. Though I still try. He isn¡¯t going anywhere so I decided to have him teach me the language of the countries we¡¯re visiting. I may not be able to get rid of him now but he can fuck off whenever we reach our destination in Wildaen. After that he¡¯s gone. I forgot his name because after this he¡¯s either gonna leave or become a corpse. Or a snack. Understanding the concept of the other languages is pretty easy with the elven language as a base. The thing most interesting is that the Faeries language is still known by some of the elven scholars but a lot of it was lost, because it¡¯s apparently the most complicated language. The shitty translator told me some of the few sentences he knows and I was surprised. It¡¯s almost exactly like German. It¡¯s shocking, and makes that really easy if I ever have to talk to the Faeries. We¡¯ve come across a few caravans of Beastman and elven villages. Most were separate, but there were a few villages that lived in harmony with the two races and a few others. The Anima are very friendly with the elves but still cautious of them. Most likely reason being that the Anima are extremely distrusting because of the humans, and it is affecting the relationship of other races. I was surprised to see so many before reaching the border, but they trust the Elves quite a bit because the Elves are so much like them. Even if that trust is strained. Well they both love nature, and are victims of mass-enslavement. The Elves and female Anima are turned into sex slaves, and the Beastman are turned into battle and war beasts. Most Elves aren¡¯t used as combat slaves because they all look feminine and humans so they are all pretty much turned into sex slaves, whether they¡¯re male or female. It¡¯s a shitty reality that they share but it brings them closer. It¡¯s quite amazing how the humans have turned into the most hated race and have caused so much destruction and grief. I guess score one for HUMANity. My day goes: Getting control over my magic and mana, then learning languages, and after that flirting with Vexna only to be cockblocked by that little shit head. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I swear to god (me) if I wasn¡¯t trying to be the gentleman here I would have tortured this little shit-head to death. ~Time Skip~ After finally passing the border we have to get to the capital. There are several small towns and cities we pass by. The Anima in one village were surprised and hostile at first to see travelers who aren¡¯t other Anima. They calmed down quickly though when they saw us though. We calmed them down and restocked on supplies and took a two day break. When I was asked what I was I said: ¡°A Devil?¡± They were confused but they didn¡¯t seem to particularly care. Some amazed I could speak their language. Some seemed to like me because the Devil race is currently trying to attack the humans. But. Most couldn¡¯t care for good reasons. Would I affect their lives? Probably not. A couple guys came up and asked if I wanted to go drinking though. I didn¡¯t know why they did, but the thought of having some other worldly booze made me excited. I was surprised to find out it was as strong if not stronger than vodka but tasted like honey. It was called ¡®Bee Sting¡¯. Kor and Nodok told me it¡¯s called that because it¡¯s made from honey and you wake up with a sting. Kor is a Bear Anima and Nodok is a Tiger Anima. I asked why they wanted to ask a stranger to drink with them and they said: ¡°We don¡¯t get visitors of other races often. Normally only elves or other Anima. You¡¯re the first Devil to visit so we thought we¡¯d try to get a drinking buddy. ¡° This was a weird answer but I could understand it. Not many people come across here and they were looking for stories and entertainment. Probably. All in all it was a fun night and I was happy to make some friends. I¡¯ll remember Kor and Nodok. They¡¯re pretty cool. After a two day rest up we set off again. We were attacked by a few animals so I decided to kill them and eat them. Pretty good I guess. A little chewy. After that it was boring and uninteresting for the most part. When we were a day away from the Anima capital we set up camp to be ready and energized for tomorrow. It¡¯s been a nice month and three weeks. Though the other journeys are gonna be long as fuck since the distance to just the border of Garna is easily three times as much as the journey to the Wildaen capital. My magic and mana control reached a stalemate last week as I have no way to learn other spells and stuff. What I need really is to see the spells being used to judge the proper amount of mana to be used for each spell and how they¡¯re supposed to look. It would help really. Vexna only knows some magic, and even then it¡¯s mainly healing and speed enhancement for empowering her arrows. After the sun started to rise I helped pack up. When we were leaving to the capital I was feeling something. It was joy. Fun. Excitement. So far that¡¯s what this planet has been. My good mood starts to show. On a spur I start singing, but in English. ¡°To the ground, to the ground~ I spin the web to ring the people without a sound~ I break the laws and burn the rules~ When the crows start to caw the corpses pile on a spool~ I break the people and crack the world but everything is my plan that unfolds~ Know my name, know my fame, I am death and your last breath~ For fun or pleasure not even the gods escape my fissures~ This is the start and it will be done like an art~!¡±-Me Vexna and cockblock seem confused by me singing and it being in a different language. After almost two months of traveling we are finally here. The Capital of Wildaen: Freemaise. Time for negotiations and war-prep!