Ak and Tek's Offer What [Ak and Tek] will give [Daz] El Dorado via proxy. All major decisions related to [El Dorado] shall be made known to [Daz], but he shall not be the one to make them, the inheritor of [El Dorado] will be the person responsible for that. [Daz] may make suggestions, but they do not need to be followed if they do not better [El Dorado] or do not work towards bettering [El Dorado]. [Daz] shall be given the exclusive right to use [El Dorado]'s [Power of Permanence]. [Daz] shall be given the exclusive right to add and repair facilities to [El Dorado] like any other city under his rule. [Daz] shall be given 75% of [El Dorado]'s produced gold if and when he restores the city's ability to produce gold. What [Daz] will give [Ak and Tek] A guarantee that is system-enforceable to never cause harm to [El Dorado], its arbiters, its inheritor, or any of its future citizens. As its ruler, even despite not being in direct command of [El Dorado], [Daz] shall still be expected to care for and protect it as if he were. (this condition is rendered inert should [El Dorado], its arbiters, inheritor, or its future citizens conspire against [Daz] without any valid justification). The first usage of [El Dorado]'s [Power of Permanence] will be used on this contract.

Daz slowly stood up and stretched his back before he bent over and picked up the two halves of Hamson and then held them together. "Can you give this guy his access to the system back too?"

Ak and Tek nodded.

Hamson quickly repaired itself then Daz controlled it to float behind him. He then picked up the torch he had carried all the way from the first trial room. "Do you guys mind if I keep this? As a memento."

Again, the two mummies nodded passively.

"More importantly, your thoughts on the offer?"

"Indeed. We hope this is fine with you. The mysterious being is most curious, but it is certainly very powerful, of that, I have no doubts."

'It's not a perfect contract, but with that 'inert if they conspire against me' clause, then I'm not really losing anything.' Daz shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine with this."

"Excellent."

"I am glad we could come to a peaceful arrangement with a bearer of the main exterminator's power."

Perhaps here would be where someone would ask for more information regarding Daz's ancestors, but the man himself couldn't care any less about that since it related to his family.

He knew why the ancient espers had attacked El Dorado and he knew what was left of the city. What more did he need to learn beyond that? Nothing, in his opinion.

"We shall return to the two human males and make the older one the city's inheritor."

Daz approved. "Go ahead."

30-minutes flew by as Ak and Tek performed the process of making Sir Albert the controller of El Dorado.

The old scholar and explorer had jumped at the opportunity. For one, while it bound him to the city, it halted any ageing whatsoever, meaning that so long as ancient texts and mysteries were brought to him, then he could still perform his passion of discovering the unknown for endless years to come.

"So I just press here and think about what I want to be made permanent?" Sir Albert asked.

He and everyone else were currently at the top of the 13th pyramid where an altar of sorts resided.

Apparently, one such altar existed on all of the pyramids but during the war with the exterminators, they had all been destroyed bar this one. Not all of them could grant permanence, however, according to Ak and Tek.

Ak inclined his head. Tek wasn't present since, at a minimum, one of them had to maintain the rituals keeping El Dorado together. He also had to reset the trials in the possible event that Sir Albert were to meet a hasty end.

"Indeed. The collected moonlight shall gather onto the object of desired permanence when you finalise the ceremony in your mind."

"It's so peculiar that you can talk without moving your lips..." Sir Albert curiously said as he inspected the mummy. "Anyhoo, so, I just do this then?" he asked as he touched the altar.

A soft white glow seeped out of the golden structure like water overflowing from a cup. It slowly pooled at their feet before collecting together into a ball.

The contract binding Daz and Ak appeared in front of the two of them on its own, then the moonlight merged into it.

Daz looked at the contract to see if anything had changed about it. He wasn't really expecting anything, but to his surprise, the contract had, in fact, been altered.

Contract of Mutual Benefit Between [Daz] and [Ak and Tek] ✧ What [Ak and Tek] are contracted to give [Daz] El Dorado via proxy. All decisions related to [El Dorado] shall be made known to [Daz], but he shall not be the one to make them, the inheritor of [El Dorado] will be the person responsible for that. [Daz] may make suggestions, but they do not need to be followed if they do not better [El Dorado] or do not work towards bettering [El Dorado]. [Daz] has the exclusive right to use [El Dorado]'s [Power of Permenance]. [Daz] shall be given the exclusive right to add and repair facilities to [El Dorado] like any other city under his rule. [Daz] shall be given 75% of [El Dorado]'s produced gold if and when he restores the city's ability to produce gold. What [Daz] is contracted to give [Ak and Tek] A guarantee that is system-enforceable to never cause harm to [El Dorado], its arbiters, its inheritor, or any of its future citizens. As its ruler, even despite not being in direct command of [El Dorado], [Daz] shall still be expected to care for and protect it as if he were. (this condition is rendered inert should [El Dorado], its arbiters, inheritor, or its future citizens conspire against [Daz] without any valid justification). The first usage of [El Dorado]'s [Power of Permenance] will be used on this contract. (This promise has been fulfilled.)

'That weird star symbol in the title... Huh. So that means something's permanent? System, I'm assuming El Dorado's 13th pyramid isn't the only thing capable of making system changes permanent, so do all methods apply that star symbol, or is it different for each one?' This information would be incredibly useful to know for more reasons than Daz could count on both hands.

Platinum-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

Confirmed. The [Star of Eternity] is applied to something of the system's origin when it is made a true part of the host regardless of the means used to do this.

'I see. And why didn't you have a panic attack when Ak and Tek cut off my access to you like you did when I was having a chat with Lyle and something similar happened?' Daz asked, rather eager for an answer to this particular question.

He found it very odd that his God-ranked skill, Interference Immunity, hadn't triggered. If he had access to his reaper species and all of his skills then the trials would have been a cakewalk.

The beings [Ak and Tek] requested permission to restrict your access to the system. The request was granted.

'I would have died if it wasn't for my esper powers and whatever the fuck controlled my body. I respect you system, but you can be really fucking stupid. I thought you had a special interest in me? That'll be wasted if I die, now won't it?' He was met with silence.

'... Right. The system can bring the dead back to life like with the owner of the massive sword that's waiting for Madison to absorb it... I certainly hope you have no designs on my corpse or my soul, System. I'll fight you even in death if you do.' Again, the only answer Daz heard was sweet silence.

"What will you do now?"

Daz snapped out of his thoughts at Ak's question and answered, "Go home, probably. I need to bring two more states under my rule. I'll start making preparations to slowly take over the land between here and home."

George - the mostly quiet and lucky man - asked, "Where exactly is 'home'?"

"California," Daz answered plainly. "Or, more specifically, my kingdom, New Earth."

"Huh..." Sir Albert scratched his fuzzy chin. "Why 'new'? Earth still exists..."

Madison tilted her head to the side. "So, do, York, and, England..."

"Ah, that's certainly true. Well, Daz is American, so that makes sense," Sir Albert laughed.

Daz shrugged. "I was actually born in Italy, but yeah, I'm an American citizen. Anyway, Ak, can I have the city transferred to me then? Like promised, Albert will be in control of everything, I'll be El Dorado's technical owner though."

"Ah, uh, It's 'Sir'. Please don't forget the 'Sir'..." Getting knighted was rather important to the old archaeologist.

Ak nodded.

"Something of note before I give you El Dorado, Daz."

"Hmm?" The reaper was half expecting a corny warning or perhaps a request for revenge like with Mofolo.

"The mysterious being that grants you such strength, it tried to wrestle control of El Dorado from Tek and I. Thankfully, we specialise in expelling foreign powers. I imagine it would have demanded a very high price from you to own a place capable of reducing its hold over you by making what it gives you actually yours."

Daz's eyes narrowed. "Oh... I see. Yeah, that's pretty interesting," he replied. 'So that happened to Atlantis from under Mofolo's nose? The system just stole the city from him? I guess that makes sense. It did the exact same thing with our modern cities too... Does Earth already belong to the system?'

"Hey, Ak. Can the Power of Permanence apply to Earth as well? Can we make that mine?" Daz asked.

Ak nodded.

"Indeed, however, only if it truly belongs to you. The easiest method would be to have the mysterious being validate that you are Earth's owner then we can simply make that validation everlasting. There may be a few other things that require permanence first, but the short answer is yes."

"Excellent. Well, can I have El Dorado now? I want to check it out with the system. I'll see if I can repair any of the other pyramids," Daz said.

"That would be greatly appreciated, Daz."

Congratulations! The mythical city of gold [El Dorado] is now the territory and lawful property of the host [Daz] and has been absorbed into the kingdom of [New Earth].

'Great. System, show me El Dorado's information sheet please,' Daz requested. Naturally, it confirmed and did as it was asked.

[El Dorado] A-Rank Average City City Name: El Dorado City Owner: Daz City Type: Hidden/Production City Size: Average Base Stats Health: 12,650,800/25,000,000 Offence: 0 Security: 5 ✬ Defense: 3 ✬ Citizens: 3 Political Power: 0 Base Facilities

(Think about a listed facility size for specific information)

Tiny - 0 Small - 0 Little - 0 Below Average - 200 Average - 19 Above Average - 1 Slightly Large - 1 Large - 1 New Facilities

(Think about a listed new facility for specific information) None.

Daz had bought a very minor upgrade to this display sheet over the past three weeks. He was sick of inspecting a new city he had gained control over only to not know how many facilities of each size it had.

In response to that, he went and got a simple upgrade which fixed that particular problem. It now showed him how many of each facility size the city or base possessed.

'What the... System, what do those stars mean? They're shaped differently from the earlier one,' Daz asked with a surprising amount of interest in his tone.

Ruby-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

Confirmed. The [Star of Trandscendance] is applied to anything that breaks mortal limits. The number next to it represents the number of times it has broken said limit.

'And how common is that, exactly?' Daz asked.

Ruby-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

Confirmed. The [Star of Trandscendance] has a statistical chance of 1/100,000,000,000,000,000 to be on anything system-related, however, it is a very common thing to be attached to the stats and skills of the truly strong. Due to how many beings do not possess a single [Star of Trandscendance], the ratio of frequency is speculated to be more skewed than it should be by many players.

'One-in-100-quadrillion? Fuck me. That's rarer than... well, anything on Earth, right? maybe even rarer than anything in the Universe... Well, assuming there are multiple universes. I highly doubt there's a massive community of system-players out there in our humble little universe, is there? With how capable the system is, there's no way they wouldn't have found Earth before... Well, unless the system's been hiding us or something.' He was getting off-topic, so he shook his head and stopped rambling internally.

'Show me all of the facilities at average or above, please, system. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the 200 below-average facilities are the homes littering the place, so no point in showing me those,' Daz said to the system.

Again, it happily complied.