A whole week passed and in that time, Ronny progressed quite nicely:

STATS:

STRENGTH: 13 DEFTNESS: 7 MAGIC: 0

ACTIVE EFFECTS: Well Rested, Well Fed

PASSIVE EFFECTS: None

SKILLS:

Scan

By no means did he become a god or anything resembling one, but the gains he was achieving were reassuring. They reassured me that ordering his death had been the correct move.

Speaking of which, I had yet to tell his parents—whose souls also I owned—about what I’d done, and for the time being, had no intention to do so. They’d probably protest if they caught wind of what I was doing in this world or that I’d installed a modification into Ronny’s soul. I’d break the news at some point within the next few years, maybe. I had no obligation to do so, but it would probably be better in the long run if I did.

Now that I think about it, I have yet to give you any detailed information about myself. I suppose there are some things you should know about me, just to help you understand my perspective somewhat better—or something. I also just like to talk about myself, but never mind that.

First off, while I am a god, but probably not in the way you understand the term. I’m not omnipotent or omniscient or anything like that. What I am, however, is a small-business owner. My business model essentially revolves around renting out my servants to other gods for the purpose of saving their worlds from certain destruction. It pays well, but the trouble is in finding servants capable of saving these worlds.

That’s why I want Ronny to get stronger. So that I can sell his services to my clients and turn a profit. I don’t care if it takes him ten years to get ready for it or ten thousand, since I’ll own his soul for the rest of eternity. Until he’s prepared, all I need Ronny to do is get stronger.

To that end, I’m satisfied. He’s been doing exactly what I want him to.

Also, I’d like to tell you why I’ve taken interest in this ‘Risitro’ person. You probably could have figured it out, but the world owner agreed to sell me his soul upon his death for a cheap price and I feel like I might as well keep tabs on my assets.

I think that’s all from me for now. Maybe I’ll tell you more at a future date, if it becomes relevant to do so. We’ll see.

♦

Sorry for that little diversion. Let’s get back to Ronny, shall we? So, as I was saying, a week had passed since the last time. I skipped over those seven days because nothing particularly interesting happened during them.

Just as a recap of what did happen though: His work went well—with him starting to earn more than 80 silver in a day towards the end of the week—and preparations for the war were also going well. He and Alice had made several upgrades to their security. Most notable was the replacement of their old, creaky doors with new, heavy ones. With security in mind, they’d installed a bar lock in addition to a traditional key lock. Any intruders would have a hard time getting through. They also boarded up the windows.

With that taken care of, let’s jump into events. We can skip his work at the construction site since you’re already familiar with the details of the job.

Ronny collected his money from the dispenser, which was a respectable 80 silver today—a sum that put him in the upper echelons of the workers. Money really wasn’t an issue for him anymore, and he only continued to work past the onset of Devitalized to further improve his strength stat.

In terms of general athleticism, he was starting to approach the territory of superhuman performance. He could lift 2 hundred-pound bricks at the same time now. He didn’t do it often, but the point was that he was capable of such a feat. In just two weeks, he’d gone from being a chubby couch potato, to an Olympic-level athlete. Good stuff.

Not that it mattered one way or another, but I was confident that he’d survive the Demon Army’s invasion. If he didn’t, I could just send him to a new, practically identical world, but Ronny had no way of knowing that. He probably thought that a second death would be final, or something. I didn’t tell him anything because I enjoyed the amount of effort I was seeing and didn’t want to do anything to change that.

Plus, even if he did know the truth, he’d probably still try to keep that ‘Alice’ person alive. Ronny was getting attached to her.

He went to the big open market at the heart of the city. It was increasingly deserted every time he visited it, and now only a grocery-type stores remained. The government had taken possession of everything else. He bought some bread, and a few other easily preserved foods to supplement his diet with.

After that, he went to the Inn, where he helped Alice repair any remaining holes in the walls. Aside from the barricades, the place was starting to look appealing. Because of rationing, they weren’t looking for new residents, but they had been, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find someone.

They sat down for supper and Alice began, “I’m sure you’ve heard the news?”

“What news?” Ronny had no idea what she was talking about.

“It’s dreadful. The Demons are advancing faster than the army predicted they would. Some say they might be here in less than a week.” She sighed.

“Glad we started preparing when we did then.” Ronny looked at their pantry, which was stocked to maximum capacity, “That seems far fetched though. A force as big as that shouldn’t be able to move that fast, right?”

“Demons are supposed to be about as strong as orcs, with the magical capacity of elves. In that sense, they’re basically just ‘better’ humans, so something like isn’t out of the question.

“Well if that’s true, how the hell are we supposed to fight them?”

Alice shrugged, “Who knows? The two of us don’t need to worry about that.” She added, “I think they’re planning on hiring some top-brass adventures, or something.”

“Well maybe these adventurers are the real deal, but even then, that’s only a few people. They can’t be everywhere at once.

“I’m optimistic.”

“Should you be?” Ronny looked at the ceiling, wondering. He didn’t know much about the world outside of Barnock, but the more discovered, the more doubtful he became.

“Might at well be. If the city falls, everyone living here right now will be killed. If that happens, there’s not a whole lot that can be done. We’d just die.” She leaned in, “Isn’t it better to pretend victory is a given and be content than to dread a death you have no control over?”

“I’m not sure… but I don’t think death is a given if they lose. We could escape the city, maybe…” He sounded unsure of himself.

“If we were going to leave the city, we should have done that a while ago. Security is only going to get tighter as the battle gets closer. By now, it’s probably impossible to get out of here.”

A lightbulb went off in his head, “That’s not true! Where I work, there are ladders and scaffolding leading up to the top of the wall. We could just toss a rope down from the top and get out that way.”

“Honestly, we could do that. One of the advantages of living in the Warrens is that nobody knows us. If Barnock survived, we could come back with new identities… but I don’t think we should. I’m not as strong as you, and I don’t think we’d survive out in the wilderness.” She sighed, “In this region, only trained professionals are able to leave the wall on a regular basis. The monsters around here can kill us a lot more easily than Demons could.”

“Monsters?” Ronny forgot to feign familiarity.

“Yeah, like Rockjaws and Yakarandas. Those kinds of things.”

“Oh… uh, right. I get you,” Ronny had no clue what either of those things were, “So the wilderness might be even more dangerous than the city?”

“For me, yes. You might be different though, given how you’re an adventurer and whatnot.”

“I’ll stay here then. I may be an adventurer, but I’m only a wood-ranked one—so I’m not exactly Superman. Plus, we’re already well prepared for it. No point in letting all that go to waste.”

“Superman?”

“He’s a hero of where I’m from.”

They chatted for a little while longer and went to bed.