My daily routine was pretty much the same as always. When I woke up I would do some quick chakra exercises, and then I would go for a jog and work my muscles with my gym gear. I would then do around three or four hours of debugging and coding (and sometimes a little bit of work for Shiro as a change of pace) and then there was more chakra and physical exercises. This continued for a couple of days. By the morning of the third day after my training my body was quite full of the prickling heat of aether. It was definitely building faster, and I could feel it pooling in three distinct places now.

I’m guessing those are the base chakra, sacral chakra and solar plexus chakra if I go by the most comprehensive guide I’ve managed to find…

I probably contained enough aether to re-enter the Boundary, but that could wait until tonight. At least with all my training, I had managed to shorten the time it took to accumulate aether from five days to three, even if what I accumulated was barely a third of what Exposition-san had provided that first time. Still, with my Ether Spires working away providing ether, I should have managed to summon a stack of degraded weaselkin, so I could start a larger hunt to accelerate my ether gain and maybe think about adding more facilities or upgrading some to Rank 2. The RTS gamer in me was salivating at the thought if what I could do.

“But before that…” I said, stretching. “Can’t neglect the other things I have to do.” I did my morning physical workout, using slightly heavier weights and more repetitions than before. I was definitely seeing gains.

Taking a drink from the fridge, I wiped sweat from my brow. I had to give jogging a miss today as it was raining, but it was still warm. It would be summer break for the schools at the end of the week, and no doubt the temperature would really spike up by then, as usual. Looking up some quick data online about some usual gym routines, I could see I was already doing above the average, even if my focus was a little different, on the more combat-oriented muscles.

“I wonder… maybe I should try some spear training here in the Material?” I did a quick few searches online for suitable practice spears, and there were indeed some available, but they were… pricey, to say the least.

“Damn, I know I’ll be earning with the project for Hayato-san, but what with my spending already on the gym gear…” that reminded me. One of the key ways to grow my Territory was to gain ownership of the land itself in the Material. Another quick search and I had seen the average prices of a block of apartments of similar size to the one I was in, and I nearly passed out from the shock.

“So many zeroes…” I muttered. There was just no way I could ever hope to earn such a sum of money with my freelance wages. Even if I had a top job at a gaming company or some troubleshooting firm it would be well outside of my grasp.

“But I do so want to make my Territory as good as it can be… and having it affect the Material world as well, that would be awesome…” my abilities had all gone up, which had massively increased my work rate yes, but it didn’t increase my earning potential by nearly enough if that was my goal. If all I wanted was to live normally, then yes, I could do it well, but I dreamed bigger dreams…

“I guess I’ll have to put some more thought into how I can leverage my talents and Territory to make some serious money. Oh well, in any case, it’s time to earn money the old-fashioned way.”

With that I began to work on my debugging, putting aside thoughts of being a multi-billionaire. By the time I was done, it was early evening. Something had been bothering me, something intangible but irritating, as though a thorn was digging into my skin somewhere. I wasn’t sure what it was, but something was definitely bugging me.

To shake off the feeling I decided to have a few cold beers. The weather was good, what could it hurt? Out on his balcony Hashimoto-san was already there, smoking one cigarrete after another. His face was pale, and his eyes were dark with tiredness. When he saw me he nodded in greeting. “Oshiro-san. Good evening.”

“And a good evening to you, Hashimoto-san. Can I interest you in a cold beer?”

“I suppose I can be persuaded.” He agreed. I walked over and snapped a can out of the ring-pull and handed it to him. Opening my own I took a refreshing swig of the icy-cold beer and sighed in contentment.

“Man that hits the spot after a hard day of work.” I muttered. “So, you finished work for the day too?”

Hashimoto-san nodded. “Yes, we had an early finish today, the boss had to go out. So for once I’m home early.” He sighed, taking a sip of beer. “Not that there is much to come home to. But enough of my moaning, I’m sure a young man like you doesn’t need to listen to an old man like me going on about his problems.”

“Pay it no mind.” I said politely. “So, how’d the visit with your daughter go?”

“It could have been worse, I suppose. I took her out to dinner at a nice enough place, but she spent most of the time on her phone tapping away. I barely managed to get more than a few sentences out of her about how school was going. And she never asked me anything…” he took another, longer swig. ”Not that I can blame her. I’m just a deadbeat dad in a dead-end job living in a tiny apartment in a block full of people without much to look forward to…” he trailed off. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I laughed. “I admit this place is hardly a palace, but I’m not planning on staying here forever.”

“Well, you are still young.” Hashimoto-san allowed. “Speaking of not having much to look forward to, did you hear that Tanaka-san has been let go? He had to clear his desk yesterday. He’s pretty cut up about it all.”

“I can imagine.” I answered. “He’s getting on in years, it’ll be tough for him to get a job at his age. I hope he’ll be okay.”

“It is this damn slow economy.” Hashimoto-san complained, finishing his can. Wordlessly I handed him another. “And it isn’t just the economy either, I was coming back from the station the other day and there was a group of youths loitering about, unemployed and causing trouble. Some of the language they use… they were shouting at some other poor old man. Luckily a policeman came by and they went, but what is this country coming to…?”

As Hashimoto-san continued to vent and the beer continued to flow that feeling of irritation within me continued to grow. It was hard to describe, but it was definitely uncomfortable. Still, I put it aside and continued to enjoy myself. It wasn’t often that I let loose, so I thought I might as well make the best of it.

The sky darkened and the streetlights lit up, illuminating the surrounding buildings. Just think, in another world, all these belong to me. No-one knows, no-one may ever know, but I’m an Astral property mogul! If I owned them all in the Material then I would see huge benefits, but the cost would be insane. Still, maybe I could work something out…

A sudden painful prickling spread through my body, starting at the area around my base chakra, and spreading rapidly, until my entire body was hurting, painful surges especially prevalent around my forehead and skull. As I went pale from the sudden jolt Hashimoto-san looked at me with some concern.

“Are you all right?” he asked, but I waved him away.

“It’s fine. Maybe I had one too many beers. I’m going to go inside now and take a break. You finish up that beer and relax.”

Hashimoto-san nodded and turned his face back to the sky as I went back into my room. I was sweating, cold liquid running down my skin, and my eyes were aching. Just what the hell is going on?

Closing my eyes I began to work on my chakra nodes, figuring it may have something to do with them, especially as the feeling started down at my base chakra. Energy flowed into me slowly, but this only intensified the feeling of discomfort, my head aching fiercely.

“Well, this confirms my hypothesis.” I muttered voice thick. My vision was starting to blur, silver spots crossing my vision. It was almost as if… Hmm, this seems a bit like when words enter my vision in the Boundary. Making up my mind I began to concentrate on entering the Boundary once more. It was difficult to think through the painful fog in my head, but as I pulled in more ether and converted it to the needed aether my consciousness began to blur, and within a few moments my mind shifted…

Opening my eyes inside my Territory in the astral I was greeted with a blaze of bright letters across my vision.

Your Territory is under attack. Immediate response is recommended. The strength of the defensive barrier is currently at forty-six percent. If the barrier is breached, then enemies will be able to enter your Territory and deal damage to the facilities within. Facilities damaged in this way may be repaired with ether, but destroyed facilities will require rebuilding.

All degraded forces are engaged in automatic defence. A rallying call has automatically been issued to your troops.

This was serious! If I lost my Territory after all the effort I had taken to establish it, I would be extremely annoyed. Grabbing my spear from beside me I noticed another series of messages scrolling across my vision, explaining the gains and losses of my ether…

An additional degraded weaselkin has been spawned at the cost of 30 ether.

Your Defensive Emplacement has unleashed a bolt of defensive aether at the cost of 40 ether.

Your Territory has drawn ether and aether from the attackers and replenished 31 ether.

Your defensive barrier has been damaged and is now at forty-four percent.

Your…

In addition when I checked the actual amount of ether I had in the silo, it was changing regularly as well, dropping up and down. There was still more than I had expected, but I didn’t have enough to feel complacent.

Wow, how unfair. My Territory can be attacked even when I’m not here. That makes things difficult.

The first thing I needed to do was to get a handle on the situation. If the defensive barrier was holding, it would mean the battle should be taking place somewhere outside of this warehouse-like room, as the barrier was centred on my Territory Anchor and spread towards my borders. Steeling myself, I rushed towards the door and flung it open, stepping out into what could only be described as… pandemonium!