"Thank you, My Lord," General Retford bowed his head and had sincerity in his voice.

Standing behind him were the ten soldiers that had died in the fight against the Frost Phoenix. Each of them looked very grateful to be alive again and some couldn't even believe it.

Daz shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It only cost me two-thousand merit points. That was the last of my points, but I had nothing better to spend them on, so it's fine."

"Yes, My Lord." General Retford didn't go any further. He was simply happy to have his men returned to him.

Originally, he commanded a troop of five-hundred soldiers, not fifty, and his own strength was labelled as S-rank by the system.

This was true until he and his men were purchased by a deluded sorcerer. That man couldn't care less about General Retford and his soldiers, so even if they died, the sorcerer never bothered to pay the fee to revive them.

Since William's forces had dwindled down to a tenth of its original size by the time the selfish sorcerer had died and failed his planet's test, all of their abilities had forcefully been reduced by the system and their selling price was slashed.

At first, William thought that this would be a detriment to him and his remaining men since less powerful and less reasonable people would be able to buy them.

General Retford was a firm believer of the opinion that the sorcerer was an exception. He knew from his experiences during that man's tests that most who had advanced along the system's trials were strong-willed and responsible people, with the odd exception of lunatics who fought by themselves.

William had initially thought that Daz was a mix of the two, both a lunatic and a person who allied himself with others, however, he was glad to see that even if that was the case, his lord was still a responsible person who didn't treat his soldiers like dirt.

Shortly after that brief exchange, people slowly began to trickle out of the gates.

Crusher walked towards the enormous Rimmy and she laughed loudly as she slapped the bottom of his leg. "You got fucking huge, huh? I could see you over the wall, but it's a bit more intimidating this close-up."

Rimmy's core flew out of his main body and landed next to Crusher. "Rimmy."

"Holy shit." Crusher could almost feel her jaw hitting the floor. "Holy. shit. He can actually talk?!"

Daz frowned slightly. "He's always been able to talk."

"R-Right, of course he has," Crusher replied with a wry smile on her lips. 'It's easy to forget that the Lord has a few extra screws loose in the weirdest of places, huh?'

Dorian, who had come out of Fort Skip a few seconds after Crusher had, looked at Rimmy's core and main body with wonder in his eyes. "Amazing. To think that he's three times the size of you now, Crusher. You two were so close in height before."

"Hardly. Are your eyes crippled too, Ahab?" Crusher teased. "He was a full two feet taller than me before."

"When comparing giants, it's not much of a difference," Dorian muttered under his breath.

"Rimmy, evolved?" Madison asked Daz as she tilted her head.

Nodding, Daz replied, "Yup. He's a Jewelled Mountain Golem now."

"Big. Shiny. Cool." Madison's eyes were practically sparkling as she stared at Rimmy.

"Right? Isn't he just?" Daz couldn't be happier that his girlfriend appreciated Rimmy in the same way that he did.

Edward, watching all of this, rocked his head from side to side and sighed. 'Bunch of weirdos... I wonder if Jenna would be scared of that thing? Probably not, knowing her...'

A nostalgic look crossed Edward's eyes as a slightly darker thought filled his mind. 'Daz didn't even bother getting Sandy to say that he'd eventually resurrect those three during the funeral... I hope I'm just being paranoid. I'll find out once I get five-million points either way. Before then, I should keep my head down. Worse comes to worst, It's back to plan A with the Baetylus' corpse.'

Atop the wall, Ellie stood there with a sombre look on her face. Her father's revolver was holstered on her belt while on the other side of her waist was Sarah's nature magic grimoire, it hung there casually by a rope cord.

Ellie had decided to keep these two items with her at all times. She was incapable of using the grimoire since she knew no nature magic, and the gun was already slowly becoming useless as the average stats of the survivors was going up.

Daz had already told everyone that guns would be pointless without heavy reinforcement and modifications, both of which were things that Ellie couldn't afford to waste points on, so both the revolver and her sister's grimoire were more momentos than usable items, but to Ellie, they were far more valuable than anything else she owned.

Ellie tied her loose hair into a ponytail and wiped away the sweat from her brow. Even though she was only wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, the heat was still insufferable.

She grabbed Mini Daz who now had a thin metal ring floating around him, a device that boosted all of his abilities and lessened the worldforce required to channel power through him. With a thought, and while using Mini Daz, Ellie ordered M Destroyer to exit Fort Skip and line-up with the others already out there.

In regards to M Destroyer, with the points that Ellie had earned yesterday, on top of Mini Daz's ring, she was able to repair a lot more of the massive robot's damage. It still wasn't as powerful as the one that had attacked Fort Skip since it had been revived via one of her skills and not through the system, also, it still hadn't been fully repaired, but it was a powerful force not to be reckoned with nonetheless.

In particular, a certain detail had appeared on its status.

Controlled Makrov Tank Issue Mark V Automaton Basic Information Name: M Destroyer Species: N/A [Beginning stages of evolving] Age: 0 Sex: N/A Class: N/A Affinity: N/A Description

One of the final remaining Tank-class Automatons in the discontinued Makrov line of war Automatons.

Defeated as it served the system faithfully, this machine was granted life by the host, Ellie Richie.

It has the potential to grow a consciousness and evolve.

Energies Owner's Worldforce Capacity: 500/2,000 [+1,000] Stats Durability: 4,000/10,000 [2,058 restored] Attack: 2,500/5,000 [1,498 restored] Range: 1,500 [+500] Skills Photon Laser Barrage [Restored] Self Destruct [3/4 efficency]

The machine had begun evolving before Ellie had even noticed it. She knew that it could grow an ego, but she had no idea that it could evolve since it didn't have a base species.

On the topic of evolving, after accepting her father and sister's deaths, while still in a constant state of grief, Ellie herself had evolved. Daz had been shocked once he had seen her new race, but he was happy that she had managed to move on from yesterday's tragedy so quickly.

Daz had chalked this down to the temporary ability that Ellie's God-rank skill, Only If You Need Me, had given her.

Ellie Richie's Status Basic Information Name: Ellie Richie Species: Human Race: Telekinetic Witch Age: 23 Sex: Female Class: Sorceress of Machinery Affinity: Chaotic Good [+ Chaotic] Description

A simple college student who was majoring in Machine Tool Technology.

The two people she loved the most were taken away from her by the system and this affected her greatly.

Her primary goal now is to defeat the system's trials and find a way to bring back her family and destroy the system for what it did to them.

Energies Lifeforce: 2,500/2,500 [+1,500] Stamina: 1,500/1,500 [+,500] Worldforce: 4,000/4,000 [+3,800] [New!] Psychic Energy: 1,000 Stats Intelligence: 300(360) [+290] World Affinity: 600(720) [+590] Wisdom: 500(600) [+490] Luck: 500 [New!] Telekinetic Force: 200 [New!] Immunity: 50 The host has 6 unused stat slots. Telekinetic Force The power dwelling within all those who are particularly gifted with telekinesis. Effect and Limit Increases all telekinetic powers by 0.5% per stat point. Limit of 2,000 stat points for a Telekinetic Witch. Ellie Richie's Resistance Sheet Resistance Type Resistance Amount Psychic 20% Magic 10% Poison 10% Elemental 15% Physical -10%

'She sure has grown a lot since the last time I inspected her, huh? I'm a bit concerned that she became chaotic, but it's understandable, and she's still good. It would better to not inhibit her and make her detest me by mistake,' Daz decided.

The young Reaper then breathed a sigh of relief. 'That bit about how much she cherishes me in her description is gone now, huh? That's good. So it was only a suspension bridge effect after all. I guess her family dying woke her up. It's upsetting that it took something that serious for her to realise her feelings of appreciation weren't feelings of love...'

Daz's internal dialogue was cut short by the unwelcome sight of a system notification.

Day two's attack shall now begin Due to this being the second attack cycle, an additional factor has been added: Extreme Weather: Intense heat. Due to this being the second attack cycle, an additional factor has been added: Extreme Terrain: Desert.

Due to the efficient use of your merit points, and at the request of several gods, the difficulty of your attack has increased greatly.

The attack's difficulty has increased immensely due to the host's number of governed citizens increasing greatly.

Due to the base losing three of its fighting survivors, and by the request of a few gods, the difficulty of your attack has decreased slightly.

Due to the host's summoned being [Rimmy McShineston] evolving, the difficulty of your attack has increased greatly.

Good luck, Reaper.

Daz blinked and the change was immediate.

The broken paved road and lush grass plans, even the forest that extended past the verdant landscape, all of them had been turned into an ocean of sand.

Daz could hear a loud and mysterious sound coming from the sky. he looked up and strained his vision. In the distance, he could see ten warships flying through the air, each of which seemed to be powered by a large engine that he could barely see hanging off of the back of the metal machines of war.

Pala sat in Informazione's bits and bobs shop with several other lesser gods.

To list them, they were five in number. Pala, Informazione, then the other three lesser gods; The Goddess of Luck, The God of Justice, and finally, The God of Muscles.

The Goddess of Luck looked like a little girl and had pink hair that matched her pink wings, indeed, she was a Fae. The God of Justice had the form of a Warrior Angel and he had two sets of pure-white wings. The God of Muscles was a member of the species that Crusher had ignored during her evolution: A four-armed Orc.

Pala had an excited look on his face. "It worked! It fucking worked!"

"Calm. Down," Informazione said.

Muscoli, The God of Muscles, laughed heartily and slapped Informazione's metallic back. "Let the man celebrate, why don't ya? He's happy, that's all."

Fortuna, The Goddess of Luck, fluttered about briefly before she said, "Since this is concluded, I shall be taking my leave. Please, Informazione, inform me of when we will next be gathering to aid the survivors once more." With that, she flew out of the shop.

Giustizia, The God of Justice, frowned deeply. "Are you sure that we cannot enlist more of our brethren to aid the boy, Pala's Champion?"

Pala shook his head. "I asked the tin-can the same thing, but no, we can't. it might catch some unwanted attention," he said as he pointed his finger up to the ceiling.

Giustizia clenched his fist and his wings vibrated with fury. "This is too unfair! At this rate, he will perish like my own Champion did! The system is too unforgiving and those who oppose us are actively bribing it with divine crystals to tip the scale! All I can feel when I look at your Champion, Pala, is injustice!"

"Daz is strong, but I agree. Our help will do little more than offset a small amount of their meddling. I want to do more, but the higher gods already have an eye on me after what I tried to do with the dreamscape," Pala replied.

Muscoli's eyes lit up like he had remembered something. "Speaking of that, is your plan still going well?"

"Yes," Pala replied curtly. "Talk no further of this, ever."

Informazione took it upon himself to redirect the conversation. "Morte's. Champion. Moving. Across. The. Ocean. I. Have. A. Bad. Feeling. Isn't. It. Suspicious?"

Giustizia, having seemingly collected himself a bit, nodded. "It is, but as Pala said, there is nothing more that we can do. Your warnings and our paltry assistance are all that we can give them."

"Indeed." The group of lesser gods then refocused their attention to Daz and his group as they combatted the second attack of the second cycle.