When I led everyone to the bottom floor, the doors were once again blocked by zombies. Of course they were cleared out easily enough with sidereal blast, leveling up due to figuring out I could shape the blast area. I learned that by shaping the blast into a cone, and pointing it towards the door. Blasting that general direction down with nuclear fire for a while to make sure that the zombies were very dead, I continued onward and saw something a bit bigger…

It was 5 meters tall, and just as wide. It seemed like a morbidly obese man in a business suit, except its skin was pale, unwashed filth being visible within each nook and cranny, particularly within its rolls of fat. Then it spoke, and what I assumed were just rolls of fat sticking out of its neck turned out to open up and reveal a total of three mouths with hundreds of needle like teeth.

“Least gluttony demon. A lesser kind of gluttony demon, and an enemy of the system. This particular species of demon is known for its immense vitality, as well as the ability to consume other creatures whole or in pieces, where their essense is then grinded away and used to fuel the demonic horde. Recommendation, kill it with fire”

Huh, seems simple enough. I fired off a simple sidereal blast at it. It left nothing but a scorch mark.

Huh, this might be a bit more difficult than it looks…

I used cosmic elemental manipulation to open a trench towards the base, with a small barricade to protect everyone from stray shockwaves.

“Corran!” (RUN)

As the people behind me rushed into the trench trying to get to safety, the demon charged at me. This time, instead of blasting it full on, I aimed at its foot, causing it to trip and begin to roll. Raising another small lip to form a bit of a curved track, I sent the demon in the opposite direction of the people.

With my recent level ups, my max SE was sitting at 10824, of which I already spent 600 using cosmic elemental manipulation. I spent another 3000 now on sidereal constructs.

I made 3 simple constructs, which I dubbed “Death Stars”. They appeared like small floating balls of light, quickly shifting through all of the colors of the rainbow. These were built with 3 different skills, sidereal blast, sidereal flight, and… James…

the basic idea was that they would zip around, orbiting the demon while bombarding it with mini sidereal blasts. Of course what ended up happening was that I had 3 laser drones instead of missile drones instead of the missile drones I was hoping for, since instead of a sidereal “blast” they fired a “beam” with much less oomph.

“Well what did you expect, they only have one point of Sidereal Quintessence. If they actually used sidereal blasts it would feel like getting beaned with a rock at worst. Of course with the sidereal beam… I might have to remember this design…”

I quickly saw what James meant, as the three little stars flew around the demon in a lopsided triangle formation, one star flying close behind him and firing at the back of his head, while the other two flew in front of the demon and just out of its reach. The benefit of this formation was that as soon as the demon turned to attack the one behind him, it flew out of his reach and one of the other two flew in to take its spot. Against an enemy whose iq could be measured in one hand like the gluttony demon, it was practically invincible. In the meantime, I sent a couple more of those drones, spending another 2000 SE. now, 3 remained outside its reach, while two attacked it from behind its back. Whenever it was attacked now it began to flinch in pain, since both lasers aimed at the same point and amplified the damage penetration.

Deciding the demon was in good hands, I followed the people I sent out of the hospital and guided them to the castle. Along the way, I explained to them what I learned so far, how magic, ki, psionics, and spirits worked. I also told them my experiences gaining skills, and how a good theoretical understanding helped in actually getting the skill. Soon enough we got to the base, Xana showing me where she brought the others.

“Jose, puedes enseñarle a estas personas las reglas de aquí” (Jose, can you show them the rules around here?)

“Dices la de no matar a los duendes?” (you mean not killing the goblins?)

“Exactamente” (exactly)

So I left the job of settling the new people in to Xana, José and…. myself?

“I managed to level up enough to get another avatar, I feel it would be best if they see your face”

Huh, neat. Nice to know you have a body of your own now.

“It’s still your body, I’m just driving this one while you focus on that one. Technically speaking, you’re still the one driving both avatars, it’s just that I’m acting as this bodies consciousness”

Oh, umm…

“And again, I technically am you, I just have more access to your full computing power from all of those stats”

Well that’s good to know.

Then I noticed I had quite a few feat points floating about, so I decided to spend them all.

Available Feats: Hero (30 points) Legion of one (200 points) commander (10 points) dragonslayer (100 points) beginner regeneration (10 points)

Decisions, decisions… I’m interested in the legion of one, but that would be a lot of saving up to do…

dragonslayer was definitely unlocked by killing the cuelebre, but seeing as that didn’t unlock it by itself, it seems to be something pretty good. Interesting, I’ve never heard of the LUK stat… oh boy…

Hero seems like it gives me a bonus 6 stats every level up, which’s pretty powerful in the long run, with an extra 60 stats up front. Commander and beginner regeneration are both cheap…

“I recommend Hero, since that will give you more the earlier you get it, while commander and beginner regeneration are both cheap and would serve you well in the long run”

I'm curious, how do you come to these conclusions anyway?

“Prognosticator allows me to analyse and predict patterns, while combat master and ruler of chaos allow me to have quite a bit more expertise on the matters of growth and survival. I simply predict what sort of challenges you will be generally facing, calculate which qualities would serve you best. In this case, the hero skill still adds a decent amount to your growth, while the commander skill will help you as a leader, and the beginner regeneration will give you more staying power and survivability in the immediate future”

Thank you very much, it's nice having a little computer assistant to compare the pros and cons for you.

And as soon as I bought all three…

“The hero feat and the commander feat have fused and evolved into the Cid Campeador feat. this feat was unlocked by 1. Obtaining the hero and commander feats, as well as one related to having a base, 2. Defeating a large number of almoravid warriors, 3. Owning a base with a medieval theme. This feat grants 100 bonus stat points, along with 10 bonus stat points and 2 bonus feat points per level. It also increases cooperation and harmony between any forces under your control, increasing their abilities by 5%”

Huh, looks like it got a free upgrade, did you predict this too?

“I’m afraid I can't quite predict how your actions will affect the growth of your skills, just which ones will help you the most. This is simply a pleasant surprise… Oh wow, that's very nice timing, the demon finally died, and you leveled up, and are 10 gold pieces richer”

What do you even use gold for?

“For now, base enhancements. I can make them cheaper by just buying the materials and using sidereal constructs for the labor, but my plans seem expensive. It would be possible to form a kind of city state, but that would require expanding our territory and renovating infrastructure, which would stretch out pockets thin. For now I'm focusing on renovating our main base and expanding it over the rest of the area, see if it evolves into a city… I just got a message, which may help us solve the money problem…”

And said message is?

“The forces of demonkind rage against your world, hoping to take it over and make it their own. They send their legions of the damned to your doorstep, though in time more powerful enemies will arrive…”

“That isn't good…”

“Well, it could be an opportunity, since when monsters die, their essence would be condensed, in this case into currency used by the system. This is another reason that whole creation of a soul thing was so ridiculous, since your basically printing money. Sure it's not very cost effective, but its inexhaustible free money. Since for some reason our essence seems to grow so quickly…

Anyway, I have a plan to deal with the attack. By my guess, we’ll be assaulted by an enormous zombie horde, followed by a demonic commander. Since zombies have the tactical brilliance of Leeroy Jenkins, a simple terrain based trap should handle several of them quite nicely, though if too many of them fall for it right away the enemy commanders may notice and try to find a way over our fortifications. That is why I require you to handle as many as you can up front, after which point the commander would most likely try to either overwhelm you with a charge, or turn to a more cautious strategy, where they try to conserve their troops. At that point, we begin phase 2…

Oh, and one more thing, I took the drones you made and made some adjustments. Nothing much, just added the elemental manipulation and poincare restoration skills. Of course this increased the price from 1000 SE per little death star to 1500 SE for each Prismatic Star because they have a few more abilities than the 3 they're supposed to have at their power level, as I decided to call them. I ran a few experiments, and I found I could alter them to work together much more efficiently, especially since you gained the Cid feat. Just by having me and cosmic elemental manipulation it becomes much more versatile, allowing it to act as a utility drone, while cosmic flight, poincare restoration and sidereal blast adding mobility, supportive and offensive capabilities. What do you think?”

That is… impressive to say the least. And if their powers are based on how many of them there are…

“Oh, not just them. They can theoretically work with any of the citizens of this base, the field they generate to help each other and share power can also extend to the citizens, though not nearly as efficiently… what are you doing?”

“Spamming them”

I ended up summoning 80 of them, by spending most of the main body’s mana. Next I separated them into groups of 10, making them circle the perimeter of the base, fortifying it. Mainly by digging moats and trenches with spikes at the bottom, building short walls, lines of stakes pointing outward, etc…

this would disallow the enemy from approaching too easily, and allow us enough time to deal real damage.

“What are you doing?”

Oh look, Xana appeared, along with Milesio. He seems taller for some reason, and a much darker shade of green.

“Mi Cid, porque conjuraste todas estas estrellitas?” (my lord, why did you conjure these stars?)

Well, I guess they should know…

“Vamos a ser atacados pronto. Estas estrellas nos ayudarán a defendernos, fortificando el perímetro y atacando a los invasores” (We'll be attacked soon, these stars will help defend us, fortifying the perimeter and attacking the invaders)

Milesio immediately went to go grab his spear…

“Yo buscaré unos guerreros para montarnos en las paredes, utilizaremos nuestras lanzas para atacar a mayor distancia que-” (I'll look for some warriors to man the walls, we'll use our spears to attack at greater reach tha-)

“Milesio, prefiero que ustedes se queden adentro, no quiero arriesgarme a perderlos” (Milesio, I prefer that you guys stay inside, I dont want to risk losing you)

He looked crestfallen, seeming to misunderstand my stance…

“Milesio, no es que te creo débil o un cobarde, es que tienes hijos que criar. No quiero arriesgar que ellos se hagan huérfanos sin tener absolutamente ninguna otra opción” (Milesio, its not that I think you are weak or cowardly, its that you have kids to raise. I dont want to risk making them orphans unless I have no other option)

“Tú tienes a todos nosotros para liderar, y cuando mis hijos me preguntan donde yo estuve durante este ataque, yo no le voy a decir que estuve temblando dentro de las paredes” (you have all of us to lead, and when my kids ask where I was during this attack, I refuse to tell them I was quaking behind the walls)

He wasn’t going to back down easily, marching off. I sent Rock to watch over him, making sure he didn’t do anything stupid. We didn’t need heroes here, professionals would do just fine...

Soon night started to fall, and then I heard them…

Tens of millions of zombies covered the horizon, storming over and through ruined buildings, covering every square meter of street as far as the eye could see. I was going to be rich…