Dark Fate

Book 10 – Unmasked

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Community Building and Civil Defense Chat, formerly Life in the City Chat Room)

abby_gail, bento, RainyDayze, GringottsGoblin, DoritoMan, D.VaLuvr69, RadicalEdward, DarkLord, FusionGal, NotACop, Scholar, RamblingWreck, Anonymous4, Anonymous6, SevenNationArmy, BagOTrix, DarkLord, Faraday, BackpageGal, FullServiceMassage, daytrader, shadow_clone23, THE_MERCHANT, jenny8675309, Rabbit, Angelus and Tracker are in the chat.

daytrader: Holy shit! Are you seeing the reports out of Moscow?

BagOTrix: No, I’ve been too busy trying to get in touch with my cousin in St. Louis. They’re saying it has been a massacre there.

Scholar: I have been looking at the reports. Oddly enough, the cities that reacted the best to the attack were New York, Tokyo, Beijing, and Moscow.

Faraday: Why those four, and not the others?

Scholar: St. Louis does not have a strong Adventurer’s Guild, and the local officials have been trying to keep things as ‘normal’ as possible, by pre-System standards. Most people in the city were level 5 or so, with no real combat experience, since someone figured out how to ward the city to keep out random monsters. Police weapons were ineffective. SWAT barely slowed them down. It took three hours for the Army to get there from Fort Leonard Wood. It was Apocalypse Day all over again.

FusionGal: I got a cousin in LA. The Adventurers there are all under the control of this sexy lady that runs the local guild. She and the local gangs worked together, keeping the scaly bastards out of low-income neighborhoods, so they basically went to town through the rich neighborhoods and business districts. Cops couldn’t stop them, and like with St. Louis it took a while for the military to arrive.

Faraday: Why did it take the military so long to respond? Were they just sitting on their fucking hands?

DarkLord: They had twenty minutes warning that the ships were coming. Mobilizing people and vehicles takes time. Google tells me that Fort Irwin is 2.5 hours from LA, even if you don’t hit traffic, and it is a bit longer from Fort Leonard Wood to St. Louis. 20-40 minutes to scramble a military convoy and get it on the road is good time, IMHO.

Scholar: Indeed. And there are similar stories in London and Berlin. The levels of the locals were not enough to fight the lizardfolk one on one, so they were basically just trying not to die until the military showed up with heavier weapons.

RadicalEdward: Then what made those cities different from the others?

daytrader: Well, I don’t know about the other cities, but Moscow’s defense can basically be summed up with one phrase: bear cavalry.

Faraday: What.

daytrader: No lie! Seems like the locals got REALLY drunk after the Apocalypse, and figured out some kind of spell that lets them summon a mount. And the first thing one of the crazy bastards did was summon a big ass bear to ride. Thing kind of spiraled out of control after that, and now half of Moscow has bears.

Scholar: And getting the food to feed their bear mounts has meant more of them went hunting in dungeons, so their levels were all in the twenties. Plus, their bears leveled with them. So, the ship lands, and the Russians literally charge the thing with bear cavalry.

Tracker: I’m too sober for this shit.

Scholar: So, anyways. Beijing and Tokyo have similar stories. There are a LOT of people who saw the System come online, and then started grinding levels to be the biggest and baddest anime protagonist that they could be. And that was before one of the Chinese summoned Son Wukong, or Son Goku, as he is sometimes known.

bento: The anime character?

Scholar: No, not the guy from Dragonball. The mythological figure from the Chinese classic Journey to the West, among other things.

DarkLord: I assume the aliens had a bad day after that?

Scholar: The ‘dragons’ offended him, and so he smashed what remained of their ship after the engines got blown up, transformed it into a mighty pavilion for himself.

bento: Oh, wow.

Scholar: Tokyo was relatively tame, compared to that. Just an army of otaku wannabe samurai all armed with the power of anime and the System on their side.

Faraday: Huh. What about those fighters that blew the engines? I heard they appeared in each city?

Scholar: I don’t know. Current scuttlebutt says that it has something to do with the base out at Ceres before Ceres just DISAPPEARED shortly before the aliens showed up in the system.

DarkLord: That would be the Kingdom of Ceres, and the fighters are part of the Ceres Royal Navy.

RainyDayze: The WHAT now? Since when has there been a Kingdom of Ceres, and since when did they have fucking X-wings?

DarkLord: I made the mistake of giving my design team access to pre-Apocalypse science fiction. The designer immediately fell in love with the Star Wars movies, and designed X-wings for me. But it was the pilots who decided to call them Rogue Squadron.

Faraday: Wait, ‘your’ design team? What do you have to do with Ceres?

DarkLord: Oh, right. You could say that I am Zayn Greene, First of His Name, King of Ceres and the Belt, Lord of the Outer Worlds, and Protector of the Realm.

bento: What? But you were just that guy who was helping the APD with the System cases until they could get up to speed.

DarkLord: I was. And now I am the CEO and Owner of Dark Lord Industries, based on Ceres, and King of Ceres, as well as leader of the Ceres Royal Navy.

THE_MERCHANT: You enjoyed that a little too much.

DarkLord: Well, sorry, if Rogue Leader got to say she was locking s-foils into attack position, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to get another quote out.

RainyDayze: Uh, wow. So, if I join, will I get to fly an X-wing?

DarkLord: It will depend on your talents, Rainy. But we are definitely looking to expand our military. The forces we had were just barely enough to hold off and delay the enemy, since they came in overwhelming force.

Tracker: Eight ships is overwhelming force?

DarkLord: Fifty ships invaded. Eight made it to Earth. None made it off Earth, and only twenty-five of the remaining escaped, some of them barely holding together enough to go to FTL. My forces included a few torpedo boats, a squadron of fighters, and a single warship.

Faraday: How did you do that?

DarkLord: Sorry, national security.

RamblingWreck: So, what about New York? How did they do?

Scholar: Oh, yes. Well, there were a lot of casualties, more even than LA or St. Louis, but fewer fatalities. Some power duo stepped up to lead the cops and adventurers. The Black Knight and his White Queen, they’re calling them. They somehow empowered the people to fight harder than they should, and anyone that wasn’t killed outright was stabilized, even if their wounds should have been mortal, like having their guts spilled out on the ground. They ended up finishing the battle before the military could get to the area.”

DarkLord: Ah, so that’s what she’s been up to. Interesting.

RamblingWreck: Wait, you know this White Queen?

DarkLord: Oh, don’t mind me. Just thinking out loud.

RamblingWreck: Well, that’s not ominous. Maybe I should take FSM up on her offer of a massage.

FullServiceMassage: Yes, you should. Always good to relax. We’ll get you comfy, so you can just let out all your pent-up energy and feel better. Would you like to schedule an appointment?

Chapter 91 – After-Action

(Military Conference Hall, Ceres)

“It has been two days since the battle. Our first battle. Many of you were unblooded in real combat before this. Now, each of you can hold your heads up high, for you have fought the enemy, and come out victorious.”

I looked out at the conference hall. The entire crew of the Hellspawn was there, along with the members of Renegade and Rogue squadrons. Those that still lived, at least.

“We fought a foe many times our size, whether it be mass, hulls, or numbers of guns. Any one looking at our two forces on paper would say that we should have been wiped out. That we not just survived, but won the day, is a testament to your skills and your determination.”

I saw the empty chairs in the middle of the formations.

“But we were not perfect. We lost people. Good people, who trained and fought and bled with us. New faces may replace them on the rolls, but we will remember them all.”

Six crewmen had died on the Hellspawn as three of the enemy ships tried to take her on at once. She’d survived, but one of the hits caused a hull breach in two compartments, killing those inside. At least it had been quick.

Renegades 5, 8, and 12 had been shot down in the fighting. A few of the enemy ships had gotten lucky, or were just skilled, and caught them during the sudden firefight after Renegade 4 was spotted by the cruiser. The three little ships had not gone quietly, but they’d been outmatched.

Rogues 3 and 7 had been shot down by the ship on the ground during their attack run over London. They’d managed to crash into the Thames, so they survived. They were in Medical, healing.

Rogue 13 had been the unlucky one to get shot down by Chinese fighters using an enchanted missile after completing their attack run on the Beijing site. They crashed into an office building. The reactor blew, killing the pilot, and destroying the building they fell into.

Rogues 12, 15, and 24 had been part of the group that fought off additional ships trying to land. Point defense got them. They died keeping more of the ships from reaching Earth.

“We were not ready for an engagement like this. We were expecting—No, we were hoping for one ship, maybe two, because that is all we had the time to set up defenses against. Instead, we were faced with fifty ships. Not just fifty converted freighters or the like, but fifty purpose-built warships. That we lost so few is a miracle.”

I paused, and looked out over the crowd. “I don’t like relying on miracles. Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated. Thus, it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

“These are the words of an ancient Chinese general, translated from his Art of War. I have sent digital copies to all of you. Now, some of you may be asking why I’m talking about a general who fought with chariots and spears when we are a force fighting in the black of space? The answer is that, simply, the wisdom in Sun Tzu’s words transcends his time, and applies even now, with the System in place. After all, how many hours did we spend in training, preparing for the fight?

“I said that we were unready, and that it was a miracle that we survived. However, if we had not prepared as we did? If we had waited, and only gathered what forces we thought we might need to take on a single ship? Then we would have lost, and lost badly. Everything would have been lost.

“So, I say that, despite our losses, our basic strategy did not fail. We simply lacked the time to implement it fully. But things will change, from here on. The yards are already starting to build replacements for the ships we lost, and repairing the damage we suffered. Soon, they will begin building new ships. Not just more Renegades and fighters, but ships to match the Hellspawn and ships to deliver raiding parties onto enemy ships.

“We will build up our defenses. We will bring in new people. The time of secrecy and hiding is over. We have revealed ourselves to the world, and so we will draw from the world’s population to arm ourselves and grow, both the military and our civilian sides. The Kingdom of Ceres has claimed the asteroid belt, but we need more people to truly rule it. And then there are the outer planets, all the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and even Pluto, way out in the distance. We will spread through the system, and plant our flag. Even if Earth remains divided, we will be the bulwark against which the enemy shatters. And if anyone on Earth has a problem with that? I say let them come.”

The cheers filled the room. I waited a moment, and then motioned for the crowd to settle down. “Now, as I said, the time for hiding is over. The communications lockouts are ended. Obviously, no leaking classified materials, but you can once again freely contact those on Earth. And if you know people with useful skills, then, by all means, invite them to immigrate.

“I’m not talking just about pilots, mind you. We need people who can fight. We need people who can build. We need scholars and artists. We need people who can spin PR bullshit. We need factory workers. We need it all. Anyone who has useful skills, or is willing to get training, and wants a chance at a new life.”

I took a breath. “But that is for tomorrow. Today, we are going to remember the fallen, and go over the events of the battle. This is the first time many of our ships, weapons, and people have been in a real battle. This is the time to learn what worked, and what didn’t. It is the time to find out what went right, and what went wrong. It is the time to reinforce the things that worked, and figure out how to fix the things that went wrong.

“No one is laying blame here. If we were to lay blame on anyone, then it would be me, because we were not ready. Since I don’t feel like blaming me today, you’re not going to be blaming yourselves or each other, either. We took our first steps, stumbling through the dark. Now someone turned on the lights, so we need to figure what we tripped over, and decide how to make sure it won’t happen again.

“So, I want each of you to read your Art of War, and look over the data from the battle. Give me suggestions on ways to improve our weapons and tactics. I’m not expecting you to come up with schematics. I have people who have those skills already. I want ideas. Doesn’t matter if it is a crackpot idea. Doesn’t matter if it sounds insane, or suicidal. Bottling antimatter and throwing it at people is the definition of insanity, but we made it so that it wasn’t suicidal. And it worked. Give me the ideas, and I’ll get the design staff to start figuring things out.”

I looked around at them all again, and said, “I can tell you from the start that we are going to be expanding our military a lot. We need more ships like the Hellspawn, as well as ships that can take a pounding. We need more Renegades, and more fighters. We need to be able to take the fight to someone else, so that we can play on our terms, not theirs.

“Unfortunately, things are going to get more difficult from here on. Some of the enemy escaped. The coordinates they needed to use the quicker means of FTL to get here are now out in the galaxy at large. That means that, next time, we won’t have two weeks to prepare, knowing exactly when and where they’ll show up. Next time, we won’t be able to ambush them, like we did this time.”

I grinned at them. “Frankly, we cheated this time around. No shame in saying that. Fair fights are for tournaments, and exhibitions. When you’re in a fight to the death, then the only fair fight is the one you’ve already lost. But the cheats we used this time won’t work a second time around. That means we need new cheats. New tactics. And it means we need more pieces on the board.

“THAT means we need more people. And more people have to be supported. I know you pilots aren’t flying for free, and even slaves have to be kept fed and happy. That means we need industry. We need to start making things, on the corporate side, so that we can keep the military side going. So, if you have any ideas for products, toss those up the chain, as well. The more money we make, the better our defenses can become, and the fewer names we add to the Wall of the Fallen.”

I smiled at them all. “So, you have the information, you have comms. You are the ones who know best how to analyze the data, and what needs improving. Talk with yourselves, and if you see any points for improvement, send them up the chain. Let me know how I can help you all be the best that you can be.”

That done, I sat behind the table, and brought up the temporary Discord server I’d set up for this meeting. That was Reaper’s suggestion, actually. He said that it would convince more of the former gamers to actually offer advice, and join the discussion, so long as there were moderators keeping things civil.

As the comments started coming in, I switched my focus to my System interface. Dealing with the aftermath of the battle had been busy enough that I hadn’t had a chance to check and see what kind of results I’d gotten. I expected that I would gain some experience, since I was there and involved, but not much, given how I had basically just been supervising as the people who knew how to fight did their jobs.

Level Up!

Leveled from 26 to 30.

New Skills available.

Gain 10,000,000 PP in salvage and bounties (automatically calculated)

New title: Admiral

Admiral

When in command of multiple ships, you gain a portion of the XP from naval combat. Ships under your command gain 5% better stats.

The title (and coin!) was nice, but what really made my day was the fact that I had eight skill points that I could spend. Even better, since I got to level 30, there were some better skills I could pick. And there were a few real doozies in the mix!

Available Skills:

Note: Your available skills are based on your Race, Class, Profession, and activities.

Racial Skills:

Aerial Defender – Gain 10% to Defense while in flight.

Summon Demons – Summon demons to your side. Demons are not bound, and must be either bargained with or otherwise subdued. (Costs 2 points to take)

Class Skills:

Charismatic Fortitude – Use CHA instead of CON to determine HP and HP regeneration. (Costs 4 points to take)

Profession Skills:

Body Shaping – Able to create training regimens that will increase physical attributes over time.

Mind Shaping – Able to create training regimens that will increase mental attributes over time.

Artisan Slaves – Slaves designated as Artisans gain +1 INT or DEX per level (chosen at designation).

Adept Slaves – Slaves designated as Adepts gain +1 INT or +1 WIS per level (chosen at designation).

Expanded Appraisal II – Appraisal now includes the target’s attributes. (Costs 2 points to take)

General Skills:

Autopsy – Imparts knowledge of autopsy procedures, as well as the knowledge of how to search for and diagnose cause of death.

Harvesting – Increases your ability to harvest useful reagents and materials from corpses. May replace automatic dungeon loot.

Forgery – Increases your ability to make convincing forgeries of documents and other items.

Fleet Command – Increases abilities at commanding a fleet of ships.

Fleet Command was obvious, since it would, you know, let me command fleets better. After that, the obvious choices were Charismatic Fortitude and Expanded Appraisal II, which left me with just a single point to spend. I decided to use it on Body Shaping, so I could gradually make my teams stronger and healthier, even if they were a class that didn’t focus on physical attributes.

Now, I just needed to prepare for my next big challenge, fighting a public opinion war. If I was going to build up my kingdom, then I needed to get in front of cameras, and take my appeal to the people. I needed to make them want to join up. And I needed to do it in a way that didn’t make me a shoot on sight target for different government agencies. Because I was allergic to getting shot at.

I shook my head, clearing away those thoughts, and started looking through the different channels in the Discord server, seeing what my people were coming up with.

Chapter 92 – Late Show

I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves. I didn’t want to do this, but there really wasn’t any choice, now. Not after the public way my forces had shown themselves around the world. I didn’t regret that, of course, but it meant that I was going to have to go face to face with something that any sane person dreaded.

I was going to have to talk to the public.

Fortunately, I had the luxury of choosing who I talked to. After all, I could go anywhere in the world, which meant I wasn’t limited to local reporters, or whoever came to me. Actually, since I was based in the asteroid belt, I could reasonably say that it was fairly impossible for any reporters to come to me. And if one did show up on my doorstep, I’d probably want to take the meeting for other reasons.

Well, I decided not to go with any of the actual news networks for this first interview. That would be too ‘normal’, and these were far from normal times. No, I decided that a better use of my time would be go to a source that most people wouldn’t count on as a news program. The fact that it was shooting in New York was just a bonus.

“And our guest tonight, you all know him as the mysterious figure behind the fighters which disabled the alien ship that landed here in Central Park last week. Making his first interview ever, it is the King of Ceres, Zayn Greene!”

I smiled as I stepped out onto the sound stage in my human form, dressed all in black, as normal. There were a few cheers from the crowd, but not many. Most people didn’t know what to make of me, after all.

As I shook the host’s hand, and sat down, he leaned in. For a moment, I was distracted from what he was saying by thinking how right his features looked as a High Elf. Only fitting since he was a major Tolkein fan before the Apocalypse. “So, Your Majesty—”

I shook my head, and said, “Please, Stephen. Call me Zayn. Save the formalities for formal occasions. I’m not Denethor. I don’t need people acting so stiffly around me just to stroke my ego. Formal settings and official events are one thing, because I have to play to the office I claimed, but otherwise, I don’t require people to bow and scrape or any of that bull.”

The host nodded. “So, Zayn, I guess the first question on everyone’s mind is ‘where did you get those X-wings that we saw on Invasion Day, and how can I get one’?”

“Well, the easiest way for anyone to get to pilot one of the Mark 1 Hunter, X-Pattern Starfighters would be to join up with the Ceres Royal Navy, and prove their ability as a pilot. We took some losses in the battle last week, and are looking to expand, beyond that, so we are definitely recruiting.”

“Now, this Ceres Royal Navy. How did you come to control it, or Ceres itself? I mean, the world has gone through a lot of changes, but what allowed you to make yourself King of Ceres?”

“That is a great question, Stephen,” I smiled. “The truth is, I bought my ships and refinery from the System Shop, and, once I started carving out the colony on Ceres, the System acknowledged me as the ruler of the asteroid. Naturally, I wanted a navy to defend myself, so I bought a warship, and had some other ships made at the shipyard I also bought.”

Stephen blinked, obviously a little surprised about that. “So, you did a Pay to Win scheme in real life?”

“Hey, if EA can do it in FIFA, why can’t I do it in real life?”

“Shh! Don’t give them any ideas!”

I laughed at the exaggerated way he said that. “Well, fine. But yes, I bought a few things through the System Shop, which then allowed me to build the torpedo boats and fighters that we used. Thankfully, the build times on those are quick, so I was able to get quite a few before the pirates showed up.”

“So, you were lucky enough to have built a base and recruited people to fly for you, just in time for a pirate fleet to show up?”

“Oh, goodness, no. I was prepared, and had been preparing for something like this since the Apocalypse started.”

“But why would you go through all this expense?”

“Well, that’s complicated, Stephen. I could just shrug it off with a pithy quote, like si vis pacem, para bellum, but that would be insulting to you and your audience. The truth is, I had some advance warning, and I acted on it, to the best of my ability. I wasn’t going to just sit back and let the world burn.”

“Advance warning? Are you saying that you knew the Apocalypse was going to happen? Why didn’t you warn anyone?”

I sighed. “Well, that’s complicated, Stephen. Before the Apocalypse, if someone went up to you and said that everyone would be getting levels and skills and such, all while monsters were going to start spawning across the world? Would you believe them, or would you call for the nice men in white coats to come and take them someplace where they couldn’t hurt anyone?”

“Well, it might be quicker to just let them run for Congress.”

Chuckling, I nodded. “Anyways, I had about eight hours before the Apocalypse started to prepare. Not enough to do much with, but it was enough that I could put things in motion. Knowing how those first few hours would play out allowed me to change things, in my own small way.”

“How did you know what would happen? I mean, getting a warning about the coming apocalypse is one thing, but that? Sounds like you were seeing the future.”

“Not the future, but my past. I knew about the Apocalypse, because I lived through it once, and got sent back. In other words, I got caught in a time loop. I’m told that this is loop four.”

“You’ve been told? Is that the System, then?”

“No, Stephen. See, the first time through, the governments didn’t long survive after the pirates came. They invaded in force, and took over. Of course, people fought back. Warlords fought to throw off the yoke of the invaders. Some died, and some succeeded.

“The first timeline ended when one of those warlords was betrayed by his trusted comrades. There was an explosion, and magic being inscrutable as it is, I and several others got thrown back in time. That second timeline, I struck against the traitors, but they managed to cause another time shift, with us carrying our memories forward. The third timeline ended with Earth enslaved, and another shift, over twenty years after the Apocalypse. The person went back managed to go back far enough to erase the second and third timelines, and people’s memories of them.”

“That’s pretty hard to believe, you know.”

“Well, the proof of it is in how I got the money to start the Kingdom of Ceres.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, it seems that time travel causes bad things to happen with the System. Probably why it is hard to pull off without basically combining two magical nukes and setting them off. The point is, my accounts rolled over, for the most part, from the previous loops. So, I had plenty of money to spend.”

“Are you sure it is a good idea to be talking about this so publicly? I mean, what if someone else does the same thing, and goes back in time? What would happen then?”

I chuckled. “I’m not too worried about that, Stephen. To be able to time travel with any degree of control, you would need to be around level 25 in Tier 4, which is effectively Level 175 if you’re starting from Tier 1, Level 1. By that point, anyone with enough power to roll back time probably has better ways of getting infinite money, and definitely knows the consequences of idly altering the flow of time.”

The host fake scowled, “Damn! There goes my infinite money retirement plan!” We both laughed, and he continued, “So, if you have to be a really high level to time travel in a controlled manner, how did you do it?”

“I did it in the uncontrolled manner. In fact, I wasn’t trying to go back in time at all, the first time. But don’t worry, there’s a really simple way to tell if someone is trying to do uncontrolled time travel experiments.”

“Really? What should we look for? A police box?”

“Hah! Well, if you see a police box in New York, I’d probably start looking for someplace to take shelter until things blew over. But no, out of place police boxes aside, the way you’ll tell if someone is trying to mess with time is by the explosions. It takes a lot of energy to force an accidental time shift, which means that the people who try normally end up blowing themselves up, along with an area at least three city blocks in radius.”

“So, you’re saying I can’t use my neighbor’s garage for this, right?”

“Well, you could, but to actually have a chance of time traveling, you’d need to be at ground zero, so you probably would be dead either way. And, honestly, there are much easier ways of getting back at your neighbor for never returning your tools than trying to do time travel experiments in his garage.” That got a chuckle from the host.

“So, one of the things people have been wondering, ever since Invasion Day, is where you got the pilots for your ships? Did you have any conversations with the military?”

“Actually, the pilots of the fighters and the crews of my torpedo boats were actually professional gamers before the Apocalypse.”

The surprise was evident on the host’s face. “Really, professional gamers?”

“Oh, yes. I thought about trying to find trained pilots, but decided against it.”

“Why so?”

“Well, you have to understand that flying in space is different from flying in atmosphere. And with the technology available through the System, space flight is less like the Apollo missions, and more like a video game. Even in atmosphere, the fighters control more like you’d see in flight simulation games, rather than a military jet aircraft.”

“And that’s why you recruited gamers?”

“Yes, and I went after flight simulator tournament contestants, especially. They have the dogfighting instincts already, and they have a lot less to unlearn than a military pilot would. Plus, snapping up some gamers is a lot less likely to make waves than if I started posting recruitment posters on a local Air Force base. For some reason, I’m pretty sure that Uncle Sam would get really pissy about that, you know?”

“Can’t imagine why,” Stephen said, completely straight-faced. “So, all your people are gamers?”

“No,” I shook my head, “just the pilots and crews of the torpedo boats. I went to different sources to man the mining craft, fabrication facility, shipyard, and my one warship. Suffice to say, the Kingdom of Ceres utilizes any means we can under the System to fill out the spots in our military and industrial base. That being said, now that we’ve ‘unmasked’, I’m happy to say we’re also opening up for immigration.”

“Immigration? You mean this isn’t the mother of all tax dodges?”

“Come on, Stephen. If I wanted to simply dodge taxes, I would just move my money into an off-shore bank under a shell company, like a normal person. I certainly wouldn’t go creating a whole country in the asteroid belt for it!”

“That brings up another question. Why the asteroid belt? I mean, if you can put a colony on Ceres, surely you could have done it a little closer to home?”

“Well, I considered the Moon, or Mars, but I decided against it. There are too many countries with a vested interest in the Moon, for one thing, and if I went and claimed it as my personal fiefdom, then it isn’t inconceivable that someone would get upset enough to launch a couple ICBMs my way to show how irate they are. That’s just poking the bear, you know?

“As for Mars, or its moons, well, there’s a couple reasons I didn’t go there. Mars is just too big for my operation to effectively claim at this time. I’m building up, sure, but Mars is half the size of Earth. Also, with everything going on, I REALLY didn’t want to see if the Doom games were prophetic. I may be good, but I’m not Doom Slayer good!”

“So, what made you go with Ceres, then?”

“Well, our primary industry and source of income for the immediate future will be asteroid mining. Ceres is actually in the asteroid belt, which means having the refineries and manufacturing there makes for a quicker turnaround, than trying to haul loads of ore from the belt all the way to the Moon.

“The Kingdom of Ceres is giving the people of Earth the chance to get their shit together, and join us in the stars. We don’t want to pressure anyone, though, so we decided to give you a bit of a buffer zone, leaving the inner planets to you, while we start exploring and setting up shop on the belt and the outer planets.”

“Fascinating. Unfortunately, I’m being told we’re going to have to cut to a break, but we’ll be back with the King of Ceres, Zayn Greene!”

Chapter 93 – Colony Design

Coming out and revealing our presence to the world was causing a lot of changes. The biggest change was that we were going to start trying to recruit new people to join the growing colony on Ceres. New recruits would need jobs, and housing. That meant I needed to have a meeting with my design team, to see how things were going.

“So, how is construction going?”

Guse Shumis, my manufacturing overseer, bowed her head as I walked into the room. “Ah, Master. Construction is proceeding apace, thanks to the automated colony manufacturer. Estimates say that, once the final construction is finished, we will have room for a projected population of four million people. Life support systems will be made to handle twelve million, with multiple redundancies, but food production and energy concerns means that four is the maximum we can reliably be self-sufficient for. We could stretch that to eight million, maybe, if we switched solid food production to nutripaste manufacturing, but that, combined with the tight quarters, would likely lead to a dramatic drop in morale, which would lead to increased crime and other unpleasantness.”

I nodded. “Four million is fine. Send me a workup for what it would take to shift from normal food to nutripaste, just in case we need to invoke emergency measures of some kind. If we’re dealing with a refugee crisis, then I’d like to be out ahead of the game.”

“Of course, Master. I’ll have the relevant data sent to you as soon as we’re done here.”

“Good, now, I know military have already been moved to Ceres, but how soon do you think we can start bringing in new people? With our new status, people will be asking about immigration, and it would be great to have some kind of timeline for that.”

The Fimaazro looked down at her notes. “The Military District is already complete, including docking bays for fighters and shuttles, training facilities, and more, all according to galactic norms by the System, adjusted to human proportions. Population of the military sector is able to scale to thirty thousand people, plus support staff living in the Civilian sector.

“Primary power, life support, and food production have already been completed, and we will be able to start producing our own food in one month, with full self-sufficiency in three months. This was prioritized over civilian residential and commercial areas, for obvious reasons. Additionally, our industrial capability is fully constructed, and is just waiting on civilian workers to be brought in to run things, so we can begin expanding our production. Once workers are brought in, the Industrial Sector will be up and running within days. Docks in the Industrial Sector will be complete in ten days.

“Civilian residential and commercial districts are fifty-seven percent complete. However, even the completed areas are just structures, unfurnished, and there are no shops or other conveniences on the station, yet, except for the System Shop, which is in the Civilian Sector. Estimates say that the automated systems will take another six months to complete the Civilian Sector and the civilian spacedocks, which will cover commercial travel and shipping.”

“So, six months to start full immigration? That’s going to make things difficult, from a PR perspective. The longer we wait, the more we risk passing out of the public eye.”

Shumis, fortunately, was prepared for this kind of question, and quickly pulled up the alternate scenario figures that her team had prepared. “Well, we can switch priorities to finish the docks, first, and then complete the residential and commercial areas. That would allow immigration as early as two months with current facilities in place, but that would push back total completion time to seven months, due to having to re-task the constructors.”

I nodded once. “Go ahead and do that. Our first few batches of immigrants are certain to have spies in them, so keeping them out of the military and industrial centers until they’ve been cleared is going to be important.”

“Understood, Master. I’ll make the adjustments.”

“What is next on the agenda?”

“Industrial output, Master. There’s the question of what kind of manufacturing to prioritize.”

I nodded, understanding at once what she meant. While it was possible to just buy finished ships and other things from the System Shop, those things still needed to be produced. The reason they could be delivered, through the System, almost immediately (at least compared to normal production and delivery times) was not because they were created out of nothing, but because the things were already made, and in ‘limbo’ with the System until they got purchased.

There was a whole lot of math to explain it, but understanding the process took several advanced skills. Suffice to say, somehow the quibbles about conservation of mass and energy in the universe were smoothed over by the System, and so doing that didn’t make anything explode. Because magic.

At any rate, that was why manufacturing and industry hadn’t died out, across the galaxy. People still needed to actually make the stuff. And shipping didn’t die off, because the System took a substantial cut of earnings as fees, meaning that it was cheaper for both producers and buyers to ship products than putting them up on the System to be sent out automatically. Buying from the System meant that you were paying for speed and convenience. If you wanted something done cheaply, or customized in some way, you went to actual companies to do the work, instead of using the System.

“First priority will be military, I think. Weapons and armor for troops, as well as some of the systems that go into ships.”

I paused for a moment, thinking, and then said, “Once we have a line for arming our people, I want power supplies, both main and backups, to be the first priority. All sizes, from personal vehicles to starships. We’ll sell them to governments at first, so that they can upgrade their planes, wet navies, tanks, and the like. Have some kind of a System Lock on them, to allow repair, but not allowing reverse-engineering.”

“That would be a Denxic Restriction, Master. It prevents anyone of Tier 2 or lower from replicating an item, in part or in whole, with System-recognized skills. It does not affect repairs, even field repairs, but anyone below Tier 3 would have to train and understand the mechanics of the power systems, without purchasing the related Skills through the System.”

“How common are these restrictions?”

“Quite common in civilized space. Less so in uncivilized or fringe areas, because those are typically inhabited by pirates and slavers, using older technology. The Denxic Restriction will last twenty galactic standard years, which is roughly forty rotations of your homeworld around its star.”

I nodded once. Basically, it was a System version of a patent, but you didn’t have to worry about Chinese knockoffs unless someone was able to independently learn the skills to replicate it. And, really, the kind of people who could do that would likely not bother with replicating power supplies. Not on Earth, anyways, where the knowledge was too new.

“All right. Have them include these restrictions on everything we put out, from here on in. We’ll probably have competitors eventually, since the pirates left ships behind on the ground, but that will at least give us a solid head start before anyone can catch up to us.”

I paused, and said, “Also, have Kakuz come up with some plans for water conjuration. I know there are already templates in the System Shop for that, when upgrading a property, but I want something that we can build and sell to isolated areas.”

Shumis nodded. “Yes, Master. I know the things you’re talking about. There are already designs like that incorporated into Ceres, since Kakuz uploaded them to the constructors as they were digging.” She looked through her notes quickly, and said, “He has two designs. One is an industrial device, capable of producing one hundred liters of water per minute. The other is a portable version, capable of producing a liter of water every hour.”

I did a quick google search, followed by some calculations. Average water use in the US was 680 liters of water per capita per day. 100 liters per minute became 144,000 liters per day, which was enough for roughly 212 people. But that number included commercial and industrial uses. If you reduced it to just domestic and public needs, then the average was 380 liters per capita per day. The industrial system could take care of 379 people a day!

That wasn’t much, when you considered someplace like Tokyo, which boasted over thirty-seven million people in its metropolitan area, but it was another story entirely when you thought about poor communities dealing with deserts and drought. That could be a game changer, if the price was right, or I could find some way to spin this to my advantage.

I tabled that thought for a moment, and said, “What about this portable model? How portable is it? Are we talking about put it in the back of a truck portable, or magic canteen portable?”

“According to Kakuz’s notes, the portable version would be a little larger than a vessel to hold the water would be. The enchantment is on the inner lining of the vessel, so the only concern is not damaging the vessel. It is made extra rugged for that reason.”

“What kind of environments can it take?”

“You would need special models for areas below negative ten degrees or above forty degrees Centigrade. Within those conditions, however, the water will be stored and poured at twenty degrees Centigrade. That is part of the enchantment on the device.”

My eyes widened at that. A magic canteen that would keep water at a cool, drinkable temperature, even on a hot day, or when it was freezing outside? That was MAJOR!

“Right, new priority. Have the magic canteens moved to the front of the line. Include them in soldier kits, and also have them ready to sell on commercial markets. We are going to bring power and water to the world, starting in the poorest areas.”

I paused, and then said, “Leave the restriction off the portable water system. We’ll still sell them, but allow people to reverse engineer them. We’ll even come out saying that we aren’t going to be patenting or restricting the ‘magic waterjugs’ because we want it to get into the hands of as many people as possible.”

“Is that really so important, Master? How will you profit from that venture?”

I smiled at her. “Oh, that’s not about profit. It is about goodwill. People are scared of the warship sitting in orbit and what we can do. They’ll be even more scared when I start adding more ships to my fleet. But, if I start doing humanitarian efforts in the poorest areas, then we’ll get a lot of good press and public opinion. Even better, we’ll get recruits. There are a lot of people in those poor regions doing all sorts of things, just to try and survive. I will give them hope, and then I will give them a chance to do something bigger and better. I’ll offer them a future.”

“Oh, Master! That’s inspiring!”

“I hope so. That’s going to be the core of our public messaging from here on out.” I smiled, but I was already thinking of the next problem. Damn, I’m going to need to go on a hiring spree. There’s too much going on to simply rely on automation. And I didn’t want the forward-facing members of my team to be slaves. The PR people and the like needed to be employees, just in case someone used an Analysis skill on them.

I would be able to solve some of this through my new immigration push, that I was about to unleash on the world, but I wouldn’t be able to count on the right types of people, with the right skills, coming to me on their own. I needed to go out and find them, and get them on board, so that I could have things running mostly on their own, with only minor direction from me. I needed people who could do their jobs without my breathing down their necks and micromanaging, but who could be trusted, or contractually obligated, not to stab me in the back.

Fuck, this was getting more and more complicated. Back when I was the Black Knight, I just led the army, and my subordinates handled most things. I wasn’t cut out for micromanaging companies and countries. I needed an administrative staff to help me.

Chapter 94 – Growth

The good thing about going public like I had was that instead of searching for talent, the talent was coming to me. My email was literally flooded with resumes and requests, from all over the world. I definitely had my pick of the best of the best.

If I could identify who was the best, that is. I could pick out talent for combat in a war zone, but I didn’t have any clue beyond someone’s levels and skills what they could do in an administrative sense. That had all been handled by other people in the past loops. Once I had an admin staff, this could be handed off to them, leaving me free for other pursuits.

I just had to get that admin staff.

Fortunately, I recognized a couple names out of the pile that had come applying to me for administration roles. There were three, actually, but only two of them I was actually going to consider. Those two had been the right hands of two of the more powerful warlords, ones that carved out their own kingdoms like I did as the Black Knight. Either one of them would be valuable acquisitions to the team.

The third name I recognized was part of my own organization, but he had fallen under that bitch’s sway, and helped the traitors. I didn’t know whether he remembered the old timeline or not, but there was no way that I would trust him a second time. Not now, when things were moving to a higher level than I’d ever dreamed of during that first timeline.

Looking at the other two resumes, I reviewed what I knew of them.

Major Monique Stratton was with the US Marine Corps, in the logistics side of things. In the first time loop, when the US disintegrated during the first real pirate attacks, she managed to pull together what she could of the surviving military, and made the Seattle area their base of operations. Eventually, they took over most of Washington and Oregon, and they were some of the first groups to start using ‘remade’ military vehicles, adapting them to run off ambient mana, instead of gas, which was in short supply given how the chaos affected global supply networks.

Sun Zhihao was the other candidate. Officially, he was a Ministry of State Security worker based in Shanghai. However, in the last timeline, it had been revealed that he was no mere worker, but was actually in charge of all the Ministry’s operations, including internal intelligence, in the city. Using his knowledge and skills, he had famously declared himself the Emperor of China, after the communist regime fell with the glassing of Beijing. His reputation was such that it reached even my politically apathetic ears as I was fighting my own campaign to reclaim Georgia from the aliens.

Regardless of what they had done in that previous timeline, in this one they were both still firmly attached to their nations. Oh, they might have ‘recently retired’, but that was such a thin ruse I’d be shocked if anyone fell for it. Which meant that they were likely trying to get into my operation to spy. After all, a spy in the administration department could get intelligence on the whole of an organization.

I was expecting spies to be part of the people I brought in, of course. The fact that the first spies I found were obviously skilled at what they did, and had the charisma to become leaders was surprising, at first. However, upon reflection, I could see why they were ‘voluntold’ to apply. They had the skills necessary, obviously, but their kind of personality would make rivals, even enemies. Getting assigned to work as a spy like this would severely hamper their career opportunities and future advancement, leaving room for others to take advantage. It was as much a promotion as it was getting rid of a potential threat.

So, naturally, I hired both of them, had them sign the standard, NDA-style System contracts that I was going to have all residents of Ceres sign, which prevented them from sharing any secrets or technology without approval, and handed the piles of applications to them. I put Stratton in charge of the military administration, and Sun in charge of the civil administration, and ordered them to get to work, bringing in the people we would need. And then I waited.

As expected, it took less than twenty-four hours for them to run afoul of the System contracts, as they tried to send messages back to their governments with information that I had told them was secret. Now, instead of being contract workers, they were enslaved to me. The contract’s terms were now orders, and I gave them additional orders to ensure that they went global in their search for assistants and bringing in new people.

I kept tabs on them, of course, but they were both very efficient workers, and their administrative mindset helped fill out the structure that I had only loosely implemented until now. Thankfully, it looked like I could leave most of the drudgery to them, and their staff, and turn my attention elsewhere. Neither of them wanted to place bets on how many spies would be caught and enslaved before the nations of Earth stopped trying to infiltrate my kingdom. Maybe it was too soon for them?

At any rate, now I had administrators whose loyalty I could trust, and they were doing a good job of filling out the ranks, and arranging for the first immigrants to come to Ceres. Which was good, because I was wanting upscale my operation, with a quickness. The pirates would not be so easily foiled next time, and if I was going to stake my claim to the outer system, then I’d need to actually get out there and start staking.

Going out and staking colonies in the outer worlds meant a lot of things. There were a lot of moons and planetoids you could stick a flag on and make your claim, but that didn’t really make for an actual colony, and would only serve as a claim in a court of law. Courts of law that would likely be based on Earth.

Now, I was totally sure that the courts would be fair and not at all influenced by the nations involved, but I wanted something a little more solid than a flag to stake my claim. Fortunately, my architect and colony designer had already started working on something like that. They were basically less-complicated copies of the automated asteroid colony machine that I’d purchased off the System Shop, but the colony design was standardized, so it saved on design space. Drop one off on a suitable moon or asteroid, and it would build you an outpost.

Of course, the outposts wouldn’t be terribly large, only a few hundred people, at most. But you could expand afterwards, if needed, with the ‘tile’ function, allowing you to carve out a subterranean colony and grow it as needed. By the time colonists got there, they would have a safe and secure, if somewhat sterile, colony to live in. Anything more could be built later.

Each colony template was designed to be as self-reliant as possible. The holy trinity of space colonization was food, water, and air. Water was actually the easiest to deal with, thanks to magic. Conjuration machines, like I was planning to install around Africa, would help to supply reservoirs, which would begin filling even before colonists arrived. In addition, water reclamation would be employed, purifying and cleansing waste water so it could be used again and again, with as little loss as possible.

Food was the next simplest. Hydroponic gardens would allow the colonists to grow a constant supply of fruits and vegetables. There were also System designs for vat cloned meat, which was crucial for carnivorous species to survive spaceflight. Even those that liked to keep living ‘rations’ on board had these systems, either as a backup, or to extend their food supply. Well, except for pirates like the ones we’d faced.

Apparently, they were counting on having some ‘fresh meat’ to take home with them. I’d seen some of the interrogations of captured pirates, and my own people had going through any computers that hadn’t been scrapped in our space battle. The Ouran’s idea of emergency rations was to eat smaller members of the crew on their ships, slave species that were brought aboard for that, and other reasons, like getting into maintenance spaces they were too big to access comfortably.

At any rate, with water taken care of, that meant that, between hydroponics and vat-grown meat, the new colonies would be able to be completely self-sufficient, if they expanded their facilities at the same rate that they gained residents. Self-sufficiency was the big thing that I was going to keep harping on in all these design meetings. On Earth, you had people dying when situations happened and people couldn’t get deliveries from a hundred miles away. And there was no such thing as going out and hunting in space.

I couldn’t be reliant on Earth for supplies. So far, everyone was playing nice. Once they actually got more space assets, though, and people started trying to throw their weight around, I couldn’t count on them continuing to play nice. And then there were the pirates, who might try raiding or blockading isolated colonies now that conquest had failed. So, all my facilities would be made so that they could hold off a siege, if needed.

Air was the third leg of that holy trinity of space survival, and the most important one. Even on Earth, it was called the Rule of Threes. Three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food. That was how long a person could survive, provided they had the things earlier on the list. In space, you took ‘shelter’ out of the equation, since without it, you usually didn’t have any of the rest to begin with. That was why I was starting with building shelter, and then moving on to other things. You needed a sealed environment before you could put air in space.

Once the colonies were sealed up, air would be pumped in, with CO2 filters doing the heavy lifting at the start, same as NASA did, but with magical backups, just in case. But that was just for getting things going. The hydroponics gardens would take care of some of the filtration needs, pulling CO2 out of the air, but each colony was centered around a massive park. Yes, it would be lit with artificial sunlight, and yes, it would be underground, but there would be actual plants growing there, passively making oxygen to ease the burden on the filters. Not to mention the morale benefits the parks would have.

Magic would also play a role, of course. Just like with conjured water, ships and stations could conjure air. Doing that required power, of course, but power was easier to supply than a planet’s worth of ecosystem. Actually, there were simple plans to allow magic to account for all of a colony’s air needs, but those plans lacked redundancies for what would happen if magic suddenly went offline, or was suppressed for some reason. Sure, the chances of that happening was small, but I was not going to invoke the wrath of Murphy by not preparing against it.

Of course, new colonies all around the system would require some trade to keep them going. That meant freighters. And freighters would need protecting, which meant more ships and fighters for my navy. You couldn’t just leave the colonies to fend for themselves, obviously.

Which meant I needed to talk with my ship designer, and see what fun things she’d come up with.

Chapter 95 – Small Craft Design

“Master! I’m glad you came. I’ve got several new designs for your approval!”

Ran Samiess, my enslaved starship designer, was practically bouncing as she watched me come into the conference room where we would be going over her designs. She was a bubbly genius and a prodigy at what she did, but her insistence on using weaponized antimatter had gotten her enslaved by her former owners. They might have been scared of her, and I certainly was, but I needed big, scary weapons right now.

“What do you have?”

“Well, first, we have the Mark 2 Renegades. The originals, you know, were thrown together to make sure that we had enough guns in space to make a difference. However, they were basically one-trick ponies. You either blast something with antimatter, or you don’t. Sure, they had some ion cannons and point defense, but that really weren’t enough to do the job the one time they were used against an enemy warship.”

“Yes,” I nodded, remembering Renegade 4’s desperate fight after stumbling upon an enemy cruiser. “That would definitely restrict their usefulness, moving forward. While having attack boats is always great, it would be better if they had something more that they could do besides just annihilate things or flail uselessly at them.”

“Exactly, Master. So, this is the Mark 2.” She threw up a three-dimensional hologram on the display. The original Renegades had been, essentially, metal boxes surrounding the reactors and pulse torpedo launchers, with a crew compartment and engines added on to make it look like a solid brick. Functional, cheap, and quickly made, but they’d never be winning any beauty contests.

The Mark 2, on the other hand, at least had some style to it. Instead of a brick, there was a more rounded fuselage, with wings coming off from the side. The overall aesthetic was similar to that of the space shuttles used by NASA, pre-System.

Only, these shuttles were armed to the teeth. The pulse torpedoes were there, and the same as before, capable of launching two shots every thirty minutes. The twin, forward-facing ion cannons, on the other hand, had been beefed up, moving to a larger size, capable of better firepower. Only the point defense laser array hadn’t changed, since it was ‘good enough’ for what they had faced.

But that wasn’t everything. There were two forward-facing missile launchers nestled at the corner where the wing met the fuselage. A pair of wingtip plasma cannons also provided extra attack power, for when the torpedoes were charging, or would be overkill for what was needed. And there was even a rear-mounted missile launcher placed on top of the fuselage, so that the Mark 2 wasn’t completely defenseless when someone got behind them.

“As you can see, the production model is quite a bit better than the Mark 1 prototypes. Those were a proof of concept that was done quickly, with an eye to getting forces in space as quickly as possible. This new version is just as stealthy as the original, but better armed, and the shields are 15% stronger, now that we’ve worked out an interference issue that came up in manufacturing.”

“Consider this approved.” I looked over to Ms. Shumis, the administrator of my design center, and said, “Send the plans to the yards. Order all Mark 1 Renegades rotated back in and replaced with Mark 2s. Then put in an order for twelve more.”

Turning back to my designer, I said, “What else you have?”

“Well, staying with light craft for the moment, I have designs for shuttles, both transport and assault versions, interceptor and support type fighters.”

I nodded slowly. The two types of shuttles were obvious. Assault shuttles were designed for combat. Not dogfighting, but delivering or extracting passengers or cargo while under fire, and maybe providing some supporting fire to the troops, either in space or on the ground.

The others spoke to the four basic classifications of fighter craft under the System: Superiority, Support, Interceptors, and Bombers. Our ‘X-wings’ would be superiority fighters, designed to cover a wide range of roles, and take the fight to enemy fighters or ships, as the need may be. Support was a catchall for things like reconnaissance craft, drone swarm leaders, and other such things. Interceptors were fast ships that existed solely to hunt and kill enemy fighters and bombers before they got too close to anything important. And bombers were designed to bring the pain to major targets, whether in space or on the ground.

Out of all of those, all I had were two unarmed transport shuttles so far, and my superiority fighters. That was not a recipe for a good time, in my book. Far too many weaknesses, and stretching ships to cover things they shouldn’t have to cover.

That said, I didn’t really need to deal with bombers, right now. The Renegades could cover that role easily enough, for now, especially once they were upgraded to the Mark 2s. With the new armament, they could deliver a world of hurt to anyone who got on their bad side. Plus, I already had them, and I wanted to wait a while before I started adding dedicated bombers to my fleet, since those are harder to explain away as being ‘defensive’. At least the Renegades were designed for system patrol and defense, not finding and killing enemy bases.

Interceptors were the next concern. I had to assume that the enemy would return, with fighters. While most of my ‘air wing’ was going to be superiority fighters, I did want some interceptors, to be safe.

“Tell me about the Interceptors.”

She replaced the Renegade hologram with one of a sleek, chisel-shaped fighter. It was shorter than the X-wing, barely longer than it was wide, in fact. It had twin rapid-fire blasters, and an internal missile bay that could hold up to eight anti-fighter missiles. The thing was shielded, but its biggest defense was speed, getting propelled by two powerful engines.

I raised an eye at my designer, as the hologram rotated, and showed the top profile. She just shrugged with a smile, and said, “Well, I figured that our fighters, at least, ought to have a theme to them, to mark them as being different from the rest of the galaxy. And the A-wing was an interceptor in the movies, so…”

I shook my head. She was an unrepentant geek, but her designs had worked, and worked well in live-fire situations, so I didn’t want to hamper her too much. “Fine. I’ll allow it. The A-Pattern Interceptor is approved. What about your support type?”

“Well, I figured that, eventually, you would be wanting to scout out other systems. So, I wanted to develop something that you could use to scan them quietly. Corvettes like the Hellspawn are good, but these fighters will be even stealthier, and could even be used as first strike weapons!”

“Well, I’m all about first strike weapons. Always better to hit people first, than waiting for them to attack. Show me the goods.”

The design was similar to the ‘flying wing’ designs of stealth planes on Earth. The cockpit was a two-seat design, side by side, but there was room behind the seats for the pilots to sleep. The flight suits would take sweat and liquid waste and filter it, turning it into liquid water. Solid waste was more difficult to deal with, so there was a note to have the pilots on liquid rations while on duty.

A small cross-section, with no flat surfaces to bounce signals off of, and sensor-inhibiting paint layered on top of sensor-inhibiting structural materials made the craft incredibly stealthy, even against active scanners. Which was good, because there was no way that it was outrunning superiority fighters, much less interceptors, unless it went to FTL. After all, most of the ship was devoted to stealth and sensor equipment, plus the on-board weapons, so that didn’t leave much room for the power plant and engines. At best, it could reach speeds of .1c. While that was impressive, in absolute terms, interceptors could easily reach sublight speeds of .25c. There would be no running from interceptors without jumping out of the system entirely.

But the weapons on board were worth it, in my opinion. Well, ‘weapons’ was putting it nicely. The fighter’s secondary weapons were two internal bays that could hold missiles, torpedoes, or sensor buoys, depending on the mission. Just, not many of them, due to the size requirements. In fact, each of the bays would hold only a single torpedo, each, though they could hold up to six sensor buoys in each bay.

The main weapon for the fighter was a slightly less powerful version of the Hellfire Cannon fitted on the Hellspawn. The gun could fire once every two minutes, launching the 100kg projectile at .8c. There was only space for six rounds, compared to the fifty that the Hellspawn carried, but the wing had a sensor profile that was one one-thousandth the size of the already fairly stealthy corvette.

It was labeled as a ‘scout reconnaissance’ craft, but this design was more akin to a scout sniper than just a scout. I liked it, but it was going to be an expensive build, and the hardships the pilots would have to endure meant that it was not something that just anyone could use. On the other hand, it was just too useful to pass up.

“Right, we’ll call this the Ghost. Mark it as approved. We’ll probably only do a few of them, but they’ll be the eyes and ears for scouting new systems. Next would be shuttles.”

“Well, the two shuttles you already have are of a solid design, and are used around the galaxy for that reason. So, I didn’t so much change the shuttles as I did make upgrade packs for them which we could install on new shuttles as standard. You’ll lose 5% off the max speed for the converted ones, but they’ll at least be armed with forward cannons, and the shield can be turned into a cloaking device, making them invisible to most scans. Using weapons or other high power draws will deactivate the cloak, unfortunately, but it should allow for the ships to hide, at least a little.”

“Approve the modified version for military use, mark the unarmed one as civilian use. We’ll rotate the two existing ones to full civilian use once we get the military replacements.”

“Very good, Master. Now, the assault shuttle I went with a different design, one currently used by the Great Horde. They like their assault shuttles heavily armed and armored, so that they can support ground assaults. They also have them set up so that they can cut a hole in enemy hulls to conduct hostile boarding operations.”

The assault shuttle was indeed heavily armed, having forward cannons, missile launchers, and a rear turret, to discourage any fighters trying to get on its tail. Gravitic stabilizers backed up by physical clamps allowed the shuttle to catch the side of an enemy ship, and hold itself there while the plasma cutter opened a hole in the hull. The docking ring provided a seal, to prevent loss of atmosphere.

That would let me send a strike force to capture the next group of pirates that showed up, without forcing them to land someplace I controlled. Since I couldn’t exactly go back and repeat the ruse I did with the kovalds now that we were expanding into space, and people knew who we were, this was the only way I’d be able to get actual news about the aliens, and their intentions. Good intelligence was necessary to protect my property, and my people.

Samiess had also come up with some improvements to the base design. In addition to the Grethak-class shuttle’s normal load-out, she added basic stealth systems, and a short-range teleporter. It wouldn’t be good for more than one hundred meters, but that could easily penetrate a ship’s hull, if it wasn’t shielded, or allow the ship to land ground troops without risking more ground fire than was necessary.

Of course, fighters and shuttles would only go so far. “Right, approve the shuttle as the Ran-Variant Grethak-class Assault Shuttle. I’m sure they’ll come in handy. So, next up, I want to hear about what your ideas are for the rest of the fleet.”

Chapter 96 – Escort and Carrier Design

Samiess looked pleased that I had named her assault shuttle variant after her, but she quickly shook her head to clear those thoughts, and continued with the briefing. “To start, the System separates warships into several categories, based on size and function. These categories are Escorts, Cruisers, Capital Ships, Carriers, and Support Ships. Each category has subcategories with different design strengths and weaknesses, as well as production and crew costs.

“Escorts are lighter warships that include Corvettes, Frigates, and Destroyers. These can be specialized or multi-role craft, with specialized versions typically being purpose-built for a single task, like how the Hellspawn is a stealth corvette, designed to gather intelligence and ambush targets. A generalized design would lose some of the stealth for better speed and point defense, possibly having more space for Marines or cargo, and more sensor equipment, which would allow it to perform picket defense, inspecting transports, and escorting Cruisers and Capital Ships in a fleet, adding to their point defense.

“Naturally, the biggest flaw in Escort ships is the fact that they have limited space for weapons, armor, and gear, making them easy targets if they are attacked by ships of a higher class. Not that the battle would be entirely one-sided, depending on the weapons used, but ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the only question when an Escort faces a Capital ship is how much damage they’ll do before they get obliterated. However, Escorts are cheap to produce and require far fewer trained crew to operate, which means a fleet can sport more of them, possibly leading to a swarm of little ships taking down far larger vessels.”

“Yes, that’s pretty much going to be our defense strategy, until we get strong enough to actually be able to field the larger ship types. Even if we managed to crew a single battleship, we would have to pour so much into it that we wouldn’t be able to do anything else with it. I will want design ideas for larger ships, so that we can build them when we need them, but for now, let me see what escort designs you have.”

“Of course, Master. I have four designs for your consideration. As before, most of these designs use wide-spread technology templates or existing ship design elements, to reduce the amount of work needed for each design. However, this also allows for more accurate modelling, since more factors are known quantities. As for my designs, I have two Corvettes, one Frigate, and one Destroyer. Starting with the corvettes, the first design I’d like to show you is this one.”

A new design appeared on the hologram display. It was an Oscuns-class stealth corvette, identical to the Hellspawn. Only, this version had all four external hard points already filled.

“Obviously, this is just a modification of the Oscuns-class, with the modifications made to the Hellspawn added as standard. In addition, the components you asked us to design for the Hellspawn’s external hard points have been installed at the start, though they can be replaced, if needed for mission-specific equipment. The Inhibitor Module, Mult-Grapple Array, Active Jamming Array, and Phased Travel Array can also be added to the Hellspawn, once the components are produced.”

“Good. Those kinds of improvements will help keep the enemy from getting away again. But I want to be able to have some kind of IFF system on the Inhibitor Module, so that our own ships can go to FTL while keeping the enemy ships in place.”

“Easily done, Master. That’s actually a standard feature in the software package for the device.”

“Excellent. Then consider the modified Oscuns-class approved. We’ll decide ship numbers later on. What is next?”

A new ship replaced the modified Oscuns. This was still a corvette, but it was different. Odd. Everything about it looked off. Probably because it was 83% biological. And shaped like a squid. And there was the way the tentacles moved…

“This is the Nautiloid-class corvette. It represents a heavier use of magic and psionic energy than more traditional ships, but the biological nature of the ship means that it can regenerate over time, if supplied with proper nutrients. It is also naturally stealthy, due to its low power curve. At the same time, it has definite strengths in attacking and capturing enemy vessels, thanks to a number of natural and technologically enhanced capabilities, like the augmentations on its tentacles.”

“Yeah, I’m going to stop you right there. I’m sure that there are plenty of advantages to this design, but any humans that look at it are going to want to blow it out of the sky the instant they set eyes on it. Research ways to defend against its capabilities, but I won’t be having any of those in my fleet unless there is a damned good reason for it, like my needing to infiltrate someone who uses these… things.”

“But you haven’t even heard about the dark matter ‘ink’ spray, which they can use to hide from enemies!”

“And I’ll be very happy to hear about any counters you come up with to that. But I won’t be having those built in my yards. Move on to the frigate.”

Samiess sighed regretfully, but nodded. “Yes, Master.” With a flick of her wrist, a new image appeared on the display.

This ship was NASTY looking, but in a much better way than the last design. In terms of weaponry, it was essentially the same as the Hellspawn, and its armor was no less capable, but a larger size meant that it had more room for a more powerful reactor, better shields, and larger engines, making it stronger than the corvette, while still being able to match it for speed and stealth. more importantly, it also had room for two squads of Marines and two assault shuttles, as well as the pilots and ground crew needed for them.

“I am calling this the Repulse-Class frigate. As you can see, it is based on the general makeup of the Hellspawn-variant of the Oscuns-Class Corvette, but using the extra size and space afforded to a frigate’s frame to incorporate a Marine detachment that can be used for boarding or ground offensive actions. In addition, the Repulse-Class has two additional hard points, which default to an ore processor and manufacturing unit, and a minelayer unit. This allows the Repulse-Class to resupply munitions for itself and any attendant vessels in the field, given time and raw materials, and to manufacture and deploy mines which can serve as area denial weapons to hamper and slow an enemy.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I like this a lot. I can see a Repulse leading a group of Hellspawns, performing raiding duties. With their firepower and speed, they should be able to outrun anything larger than them, and outgun anything their size or smaller. And the Marines give options for capturing enemy vessels, which I like. Consider this design approved.”

“Very good, Master. Next, I would like to present my Destroyer concept. It is a refinement of the armored freighter idea I gave you, mounting pulse torpedoes in the empty holds, and turning it into a purpose-built warship, rather than a converted merchantman. Currently, I am calling it a Decimator-Class Destroyer.”

The image on the display changed, revealing a nasty little piece of work. The ship had eight point-defense turrets, placed such that any approach vector was covered by at least four turrets. For primary armaments, the Decimator sported five pulse torpedo launchers on either broadside, and twin launchers both fore and aft, along with the reactors to support them. A dorsal turret sat just aft of amidships, which sported two powerful graser cannons. This ship was made with a single purpose: to wreck people’s shit, wherever it was found.

But Samiess wasn’t finished. “Because of the multiple reactors, the Decimator can recharge pulse a pulse torpedo every three minutes. That energy can also be routed to shields, engines, or other critical systems, sacrificing recharge time to increase shield strength or engine speed. Even without that increase, the Decimator is fast enough that only corvettes and fighters will be outpacing it.”

She paused, and then said, “Also, in addition to the normal FTL drive, we’ve added a dedicated in-system FTL drive we’re calling the Sprint Drive, hardened and designed specifically for quick-jumps of up to one light-hour at 60c. This will allow for hit-and-run tactics, without stressing the main drives. There isn’t space for a dual-FTL drive in the smaller ships, unfortunately, but there is a software patch that can lessen the burden on normal FTL drives for making quick jumps. Quick-jumping with a normal FTL drive will still degrade engine performance and lifespan, but not to the same degree as before.”

“Most impressive,” I nodded. And it was. That kind of technology, combined with the sheer amount of firepower that the Decimator had, could easily cripple entire fleets, until they found some way to keep the ships from flitting about. Even then, they would still bleed even a vastly superior force, thanks to that much concentrated firepower.

“The Decimator-class is approved. Fleet will start putting together purchase orders, once we get an idea of our overall needs, but I can definitely say we’ll be using these things quite a bit. That beautiful piece of devastation is a battleship killer!”

“Yes, Master. That was the idea.”

“Now, I’ve notice you haven’t made anything that would have a flag bridge or fleet command center. Even smaller task forces will need something for a unified command, after all.”

“Yes, Master, but I decided that including that on one of the other ships would be counterproductive. A command ship needs to be able to actually command, and it is too easy to get caught in the chaos if you’re actively diving into combat. So, I thought it best that carriers get the flag decks, rather than the dedicated attack ships.”

“Ah, I see. Also, you mentioned ‘we’, when talking about the Sprint Drive? Was that on purpose?”

“Yes, Master. Taji and I looped in one of the asteroid miners who had technical expertise, Nehera, the Necrozian Overseer from the shipyards, and Spacer En’salarien from the Hellspawn, who had a degree in software design that he earned while in the Navy. Together, we designed the Sprint Drive, and the software patch to allow other ships to do the same thing, with less than 35% of the increased wear on the engines.”

“Right. I’ll be sure to pass on my thanks to them personally. What kind of carrier designs do you have?”

“Well, there are three classifications of carriers: Pocket, Escort, and Fleet. Basically, the split is based on how many squadrons of fighters or bombers that they carry. Pocket carriers only have a single squadron. Escort carriers have three squadrons. Fleet carriers have five or more squadrons. I’ve created designs for all three types, but the escort and fleet versions are basically upsized versions of the pocket carrier.”

“All right, I can see that. What can you tell me about them?”

“Well, all three are basically unarmed, save for point defense. They have strong shields, but really rely on their fighters for defense and offense. Pocket carrier has one squadron of fighters, as stated, or two partial squadrons, but also an assault shuttle, with a squad of marines. Escort carrier upgrades to three squadrons of fighters, four assault shuttles, room for a specialist craft, and a platoon of marines. Fleet Carrier has five squadrons, four assault and room for four specialist craft, and a platoon of marines.”

I nodded slowly. It was a fairly simple escalation. “That works. Approve the designs. We’ll figure out what numbers we’ll need later on, when we see what kind of recruitment numbers we get. We can’t commit to a fleet carrier right away, but a pocket carrier or two is definitely something that we’ll be needing at some point.”

I took a breath, and said, “Anything else to show me?”

“Nothing military, Master. There are a couple freighter designs, to build up the merchant and logistics fleets, but they are simple modifications of existing designs.”

“Very good. Go ahead and approve them. And good work, Ran. You and the rest of the design team have been doing excellent.”

“Thank you, Master!”

Chapter 97 – Six Months On

Two months after the end of the pirate attack, we were finally ready for the first immigrants to start coming to Ceres. We hadn’t been idle in that time, of course. The construction work was still ongoing, but it had passed the point to where people could start moving in.

Finding people who wanted to move to space wasn’t a problem. After all, people had been dreaming of shit like that for decades, even before magic or technology had made it even remotely possible. Being able to go out into the solar system, and actually start building up new worlds? That was huge!

Obviously, the first ‘colonists’ we had were those who were going to join our military, and their families, but industry was right behind them. Magic made a lot of things that were normally impossible possible, but it wasn’t all-powerful. You still needed people to run machines, and do other work involved with industry.

Still, automation and magic really reduced the number of people you needed for a functioning industrial base. Since we were building the Kingdom of Ceres literally from the ground up, with all the stuff that the System could provide, we were able to start from the idea that people only needed to work if they actually wanted to work. We could actually build a post-scarcity society!

The basic necessities of life (food, water, shelter) would be provided by the state. Between the water conjuration equipment and the hydroponic gardens, not to mention magic items that allowed you to literally create rations in a pinch, there was no excuse for doing otherwise. It wouldn’t be the fanciest or the best, but it would be enough that no one would be starving in my kingdom. If you wanted more than the Basic Living Arrangement, then work was available, and you could buy what you wanted to make your life better.

Funnily enough, when people heard that, they were even more excited to come to space. Especially people from poorer areas. The Kingdom started swelling fast enough that we started needing to make new colonies. Which was fine. I had already laid claim to the entire outer solar system, but claims that only existed on a map were not as strong as actually having settlements in the region.

Thankfully, the System actually had templates for colonization kits, depending on the kind of world you were going for. I started offering loans, with reasonable rates, which would allow my new citizens to head out to the various moons and asteroids out in the system, and start a new settlement. Of course, the contracts all made sure to state that they’d be part of the Kingdom of Ceres, and would have to follow all the kingdom’s rules, and all that. However, provided a few basic things were taken care of, people who started up a settlement could do whatever they wanted in those settlements.

That wasn’t me trying to be egalitarian, or a benevolent dictator, or any of that. No, it was pure pragmatism. There were always going to be people who wanted to be the biggest fish in a small pond, or get that feeling of superiority you receive when people are bowing and scraping before you. There were going to be people who wanted to run things according to their own twisted views of whatever religion they claimed to be part of. Trying to force them all into the same box was never going to cause anything but headaches.

No, instead, I gave them a simple set of things they could and could not do, and everything else was up to them. If they broke those simple rules, well, the System would enslave them and notify me of their new status, so I could properly fix things. That was the beauty of having System contracts. Everyone in the Kingdom of Ceres was given full citizenship by contract, and, by contract, people needed to offer the contract to young adults once they reached the age of consent.

Of course, there was always a way to redress grievances, and call for change, if that was something the people wanted. I was still working on the court system, but magic that forced people to tell the truth helped to cut down on some of the shenanigans. If people wanted to challenge my leadership? Well, I had an arena set up, where they could actually challenge me. The winner got the crown, and all the loser’s possessions, and the loser got to see if reincarnation was actually a thing.

So far, twenty-nine people had challenged me for the crown, all of them former soldiers of different governments on Earth. All of them had skills, and would have been deadly combatants against any other foe. I, however, was a cheating existence, and so they never really stood a chance. Still, it did provide me with a steady supply of XP, for which I was thankful.

That was all to the good. I had a kingdom on the rise, and System contracts made me comfortable that any fraud or espionage would be at a low level, and easy enough to control. My military was already growing, and I was going to need to build a military academy or something similar before too long, to support it. I’d already had to purchase some trainers from the Minion Market to act as drill sergeants for the new recruits.

But not everything was coming up roses. The nations down on Earth were not exactly thrilled with me. It wasn’t that I was the new kid on the block. New nations rose and fell often enough that it was rarely something to talk about, unless it was next door. No, the reason they didn’t care for me was due to the fact that they couldn’t control me.

If a minor state rose up on Earth, then the major powers (the US, China, and others) would be able to bring military and economic pressures to force that country into one of their camps, and punish them if they didn’t act according to the will of their ‘patron’. I was based on Ceres, and there wasn’t a military on Earth that could touch me. I could shoot down ICBMs or shuttles long before they got into range. The pirate ships that had been disabled were without engines, and people would be reverse-engineering them for a while. The US had a bit of a jump on that, thanks to me selling the kovald ship to Boeing, but even so, they hadn’t had time to fully reverse-engineer the ship, and build something that could be used to mount an invasion. So, militarily there wasn’t anything that the major powers could do to me.

As for economic pressures? We didn’t need their trade networks. Our tech base was at a higher level, thanks to the System, and we were already doing asteroid mining and building ships in space. Soon, I was going to build my first actual space station, out by Jupiter, to help defend the gas mining operations that were going to be set up. And I could sell things through the System Shop, instead of relying on international trade.

That wasn’t our only revenue stream, either! My fighters were on a scouting mission, flying through the asteroid belt to investigate why one region just suddenly became far more densely populated, when they discovered, of all things, a space-based dungeon! It was a kind of field dungeon, but obviously the System allowed the dungeon to change things to their own whims. And they were some whims!

The dungeon specialized in ship-to-ship combat, where you needed to fly through a densely-packed asteroid field, while enemy fighters flew after you, attempting to shoot you down. That was unusual, from what I’d read, but not out of the ordinary. The crazy thing was the ship that the dungeon used to chase pilots: round orbs with hexagonal solar panels on either side.

Clearly, there was some ‘cultural contamination’ going on here. Obviously, the dungeon had been exposed to old sci-fi movies at some point. The question was how. Unfortunately, there was no simple way of testing that. The dungeon wasn’t communicating, except through laser blasts, and I wasn’t hotshot enough of a pilot to go and test whether my ‘Dungeon Foe’ title would apply to ships I flew in, as well as me.

Since risking my neck over just a little curiosity was out of the question, and I didn’t have enough time to fully devote to learning the nuances of the fighters I had on hand, I was forced to look elsewhere for places to train. My dungeon in the compound on Earth still offered some challenges, but there was a limit to how much it could do, even if I ran it alone. I needed to find a new dungeon to get XP at. One that wasn’t reliant vehicular combat.

Or, I could pull a page out of a book series I read, where the protagonist had her own space-based empire, and take my frustration out on assholes who wouldn’t be missed. Even after the Apocalypse, there were plenty of people who, for one reason or another, were still thought that blowing up innocent people was a great way to make their voices heard. Only, now the System awarded them with XP for all their kills!

I’d need to travel in secret, of course. Even if I was doing the world a favor by taking out the trash, that didn’t mean that flaunting my military might would win me any friends. Oh, it might win me some PR in the short term, but it would only spur the major powers on to try and match my military, if only so that they could defend themselves if I ran out of terrorists to stomp. And not all terrorist shitbags lived in third world countries, where I could just swoop in, blow stuff up, and leave the Americans to take the blame.

Fortunately for me, the easiest targets were in third world countries, and I could just blow shit up, and let everyone believe that the Americans did it. Even if the US denied the attacks, they’d done so many hits on terrorists that they had officially denied over the years that no one would believe them, so long as there wasn’t proof of what had happened. Which meant I could play a little.

At Level 30, I was probably one of the highest-leveled former-humans around at this point. There were definite bottlenecks in XP, as you went up, where you had to keep finding stronger and stronger foes to level up at any appreciable speed, or you were stuck just grinding, which was every bit as dull as it sounded, except that you couldn’t let boredom get to you, or you’d make a mistake that would get you killed. And trying to remain vigilant when the local monsters have trouble hurting you, much less actually threatening your life, is harder than it sounds. You simply can’t remain on full alert too long, or you start slipping, and then people start dying.

However, one thing that made dealing with a grind easier is when you found a particular type of target you were perfectly happy to go on killing, forever. Or, at least, for extended periods of time. Those kinds of targets made the grind more of an actual pleasure, rather than an exercise in repetitive boredom. The kills just felt better when it was someone worth killing on the other end of the knife.

Which is why I was whistling as I packed my gear, and made my way to my personal shuttle, my girls and guards surrounding me. It was time for a royal visit to a terrorist training camp. Of course, I couldn’t show up without bringing any gifts, but the only gift I had, that I was willing to give them, was a painful death. But I was sure that, once the soon-to-be terrorists tried it, they wouldn’t be able to voice any objections.

Chapter 98 – Surprise

Normally, the process of arranging a royal visit to a foreign country would be full of all kinds of negotiations and arrangements that could take months. Security concerns, travel routes, itineraries, and so on. Not to mention making sure that the guards who come with a head of state play nicely with the country they’re visiting’s forces. Really, a lot of hard work, by a lot of people, goes into making royal visits happen.

Fortunately, I didn’t give a shit about any of that nonsense. I was not going to be making any kind of official visit. In fact, people weren’t going to know I was there until after I left. And I certainly wasn’t going to be cooperating with the local government. Hell, I wasn’t even filing a flight plan with them before violating their airspace.

“So, what’s the plan, Master?”

I looked up from the shuttle controls to see my pets gathered around. Talia, Hibari, and Rachel were there, of course, equipped with their typical arms and armor, but Zoe and Ezraekiel had also joined me for this hunt, both armed and armored with gear that they had managed to win from the dungeon beneath my Atlanta residence. That made for a slightly over-sized party, but that was fine. We weren’t going to be playing fair, after all.

“Well, we’re on approach for the camp that our new friend discovered.”

Once I got the idea for this little trip, I made a point of looking for anyone who might have the resources to find me a legitimate target. That search led me to CAIN, which stood for Cloud-based Artificial Intelligence Network. CAIN was the brainchild of researchers in Israel, hoping to make a heuristic learning program based entirely in the cloud, and they’d had limited success.

Then the System happened, and changed CAIN from a glorified search program with heuristic algorithms to sentient code. Technically, he (and CAIN definitely identified as male) was a Digital Sentience, according to the System, and while he could live on the cloud, that was like saying humans could live on bread and water. While true, it wasn’t healthy, or enjoyable.

So, when I heard about him, I offered him a chance to join up, with the promise of a server room that would make him the most powerful computer in the solar system. Actually, the server room ended up being eight superdreadnought computer cores networked together with quantum links. I didn’t understand half the science involved, and it wasn’t cheap, but CAIN was in love the moment he heard the specs. Ever since then, he’d set about becoming a master hacker, exploring everywhere that his digital claws could get into.

“CAIN, can you tell us about the camp?”

“Yes, Boss. This camp went live just a week before the Apocalypse. It was temporarily evacuated, possibly due to monster spawns, but, since then, it has returned to use. Intelligence reports I’ve managed to crack suggest that the terrorist organizations using it are calling it the ‘Iahab Allah’ camp. They appear to be using it to increase their System-based skills somehow.

“Current estimates have between eighty to one hundred and fifty fighters in the camp, making it one of the larger ones in the region. Satellite imagery has been unreliable since about three months after the Apocalypse. Apparently, the terrorists found some way to ward against overhead sensors. Even infrared at night shows a simple haze. Intelligence agencies don’t know how they’re doing it.”

“Well, there are a few ways that I can think of, off the top of my head, starting with the same kind of wards and protections that we have on our Atlanta properties. Not something as all-encompassing as the Ceres wards, though, since they still get the blur, instead of just empty desert. Probably went for the much cheaper option.”

“Either way, satellite reports have been inconclusive, so the population is an estimate based on reports from nearby settlements. But there’s some confusion in the reports, since they are not bringing in any food, water, or fuel to support the camp, just giving trainees the equivalent of ‘shore leave’ in the nearby settlements to blow off steam. The locals are getting restless, since they had supplemented their income with the supplies going to the camp, which is probably why the reports have been getting out like they have.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. If you have the funds, you can use the System to provide those things. Or, you can use magic to do the same thing. Either way, this rift between the people at the camp and the locals can only be considered a good thing. Do we have any information on local monster spawns?”

“That’s where things get strange. We have reports of avian monsters from the locals, and satellite images show signs of monster inhabitation in the desert, but no one who has gone into the deep desert on the ground has returned. There are rumors of monsters in the desert, but no one knows what they might be.”

“But the camp isn’t in the deep desert, so we should be fine.” Looking back at my console, I said, “We’re descending into Libyan airspace as we speak, under full stealth. The target camp is near Tazirbu. Estimated time of arrival is in six minutes. By the time we land, it will be just after midnight, local time.

“The plan is to sweep through the camp, killing everyone as quickly and silently as possible. If we have to go loud, then just kill everyone. There are no innocents, or any noncombatants at this camp. If it moves, and isn’t one of us, it dies. Any questions?”

Zoe raised a hand, in her human form. “Do I have to keep hidden? Or can I go all out?”

“Oh, go all out, my dear. Lamia form and all. If you’re hungry, feel free to grab a snack or two. Just make sure that they don’t have any explosives or the like first, because I’ve heard they can give you indigestion.”

That got a laugh from everyone. As that died down, Hibari asked, “What do you want us to do, after the occupants are all killed? Do we just leave the camp?”

“Once the occupants are dead, we take whatever intel we can, and destroy everything else. If there’s something that we can’t take with the shuttle’s weapons? Well, I have Renegade 1 and two fighters from Rogue Squadron standing by, under stealth. They’ll glass the desert if we can’t destroy everything ourselves.”

That brought a low whistle from Ezraekiel. “That’s definitely going to grab attention, Master. Are you sure that you want to go so far? I can’t imagine that the different governments will be too happy about that.”

I chuckled. “I could care less what the Libyan government thinks. As for the other world governments, we’ll just release the plans that the terrorists were making to the press, and pass ourselves off as the good guys. And tie it all into our PR stuff as we try and get more immigration from Earth. Whatever hit we take will be balanced by the fact that we were stopping terrorist attacks that could have killed many more times that number.”

With no further questions, I dropped us down low, well outside the camp. While we did have stealth systems on, there was a… ripple at the edges of the effect, where the light-bending property if the cloak was struggling with the rapid change in perspective. If we got between an observer and the moon, then there was always an outside chance we could be spotted, and have an alarm raised. The chances of that were about like the odds of winning the lottery, but why take chances if we didn’t have to?

Coming in at fifty feet in the air (high enough that we didn’t kick up sand with our passage, and low enough that observers would have a hard time spotting us against the night sky), we all prepared for action in our own way. Everyone knew their job. Zoe and Ezraekiel would be key for this, since their supernatural senses would ensure that no one could escape them, even if they tried to play dead, or run off into the desert. And the rest of us—

You have entered the Iahab Allah dungeon.

On seeing that notification, I quickly backed the shuttle off, and landed it just outside the dungeon’s influence. “Well, shit. Looks like we found out why the terrorists ran away from here for a while. Their little training camp became a dungeon. And a dungeon would be able to shield itself from outside observation, too.”

“That must be why they returned, as well. The dungeon would allow their fighters to grow in strength. If they used items like capture balls, which they could have the dungeon produce, then they might even be able to take dungeon monsters out, and use them in their attacks. Monsters showing up in the middle of ‘safe’ cities would cause chaos.”

“Exactly, CAIN. And even if they didn’t use capture balls, they could still farm the dungeon for XP and resources, which will help finance their damn religious wars.” I shook my head, and said, “And that means blasting the site with a Renegade could be dangerous, depending on what kind of monsters it has. If it didn’t destroy the dungeon completely, then it would cause a Broken Dungeon, that constantly spawned creatures, that could then roam around.”

“Still,” Hibari interjected, “a Broken Dungeon would be preferable to letting these types go around endangering innocent people, right?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “that would be better, especially depending on what kind of weapons they’re finding in this pit. We can easily explain it away like that. Hopefully the monsters aren’t something that will be more of a plague than the jihadis, like undead that are capable of ‘converting’ the living. That would win us no favors, I promise you.”

Rachel frowned. “We can’t just leave the shuttle here, though. If they are in a dungeon, they could sneak out and we wouldn’t be able to tell before they took our ride, and all the weapons on it.”

“You’re right.” That was a definite concern, and one I was taking seriously. “I’m calling in our backup. They’ll all stay stealthed, for now, but CAIN, I’d like you to take over flying the shuttle by remote, and stick with the Renegade, while the Rogues orbit the area, looking for any escape attempts. There can be no survivors of this camp. I don’t want the idea of using dungeons as terrorist bases to catch on elsewhere in the world.”

“Understood, Boss.”

“Master, I have a thought.”

“Yes, Talia?”

“Well, since we’re already planning on destroying the dungeon, do we really need to go and take on everyone in the camp? We could just bomb the place, and be done with it, right?”

I smiled at her, and said, “Tactically, you’re not far wrong. We would have to, at the very least, get inside the dungeon far enough to determine what kind of creatures the dungeon uses, and finding any intelligence that the terrorists left lying around would be great, too, since it could lead to future targets when I need to let off steam.

“Of course,” I continued, “blowing it up without ever going inside invalidates one of the main reasons why we’re here. Namely, my need to work off some frustration on a bunch of assholes who can make me look good for wiping them off the face of the Earth. We’d need to find a whole new crop of assholes, if we did that!”

We chuckled, and then I said, “But, I don’t think we’ll need to go in past the first floor of the dungeon. That’ll tell us everything we need to know. As long as the dungeon monsters aren’t anything too terrible, then we can safely pull back, glass the site, and call it a win.”

We stepped off the shuttle, and turned to face the hazy blur that denoted the edge of the dungeon’s influence. “CAIN, take it up. We’ll call when we’re ready for pickup. Everyone else? Let’s have some fun.”

Chapter 99 – Death in the Night

You have entered the Iahab Allah dungeon.

The dungeon core has sensed a dungeon foe in the dungeon.

Stepping through the edge of the dungeon’s influence confirmed a few things. First, a dungeon didn’t automatically recognize dungeon foes. On the shuttle, we had been in stealth, which clearly had kept the dungeon from recognizing me as a Dungeon Foe. Now that I was on foot, and not hiding, it saw me plainly. Which brought up the question of whether there were skills I could use to hunt in dungeons while masking my title somehow. Something for future research, no doubt.

Secondly, it was immediately obvious that the dungeon had made a mistake. The warding was two-way! Yes, this prevented things like the weather outside from affecting those within the dungeon’s domain, but it also meant that the guards couldn’t spot us until we were on the inside!

The third thing I realized is that this dungeon was not just some hole in the ground. This realization was made apparent by the guard towers and defensive walls that had been put up around the area. This was no longer a mere training camp. It was a fortress.

Of course, surprise works both ways. We were surprised to see a fortress, but the guards on the nearest tower were surprised to see us, too. The difference was that, while they were tired and bored from long shifts guarding a post that was never attacked, we were expecting action, and so we moved first.

With a flap of my wings, I launched myself into the air. The guards had a crew-served machine gun, mounted on a tripod, which they were wheeling around to face me. I didn’t know what that gun could do, but I wasn’t about to let them start shooting just so I could find out. I landed atop the tower, and my scythe took the two guards’ heads before they could do more than raise the alarm.

Looking down, I saw that the guards were actually humans. Or, more precisely, the same human. Both of the guards had the same face, same build, same everything. And the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white as hell men were wearing what looked to be a very good copy of US Army uniforms.

Loot:

Colt 1991 Pistol x2

Box Magazine (7x .45 ACP rounds) x4

20 sp

As I reached down to check them, loot screens came up, sending a pair of loaded Colt 1991 pistols with two spare magazines of ammunition into my inventory. The next instant, the bodies disappeared, dissolving into mana. That could mean only one thing. The dungeon had created humans to play at being American soldiers.

“A… human dungeon? I know there are goblin or orc dungeons, but a human one?”

I looked over to see Zoe, in her Lamia form, carrying Rachel. The rest of my group could jump or fly the distance easily enough, but the Priestess was not so gifted. I’d have to figure something out for that, eventually, but now was not the time.

Focusing on Zoe, I smiled, grimly, “Dungeons with sentient races as their starters are rare, but they exist. There are two types of dungeons that have them. One, the ‘Slayer’ type, gets stronger primarily through deaths in the dungeon, so it can, very, very rarely, have sentients like humans as their starters. Goblins or Kobolds, or their galactic equivalents, are also possible, but those tend to be monster warrens rather than actual fortified positions.

“Of course, sentient monsters are more standard with a ‘City’ dungeon, and are, in fact, one of the default options. However, City dungeons are so incredibly rare that there may be fewer than one or two per planet, if my memory serves. The fact that this dungeon is not only hosting the terrorists as a training camp, but has organized defenses and human monsters guarding the walls? That means it is a City type. A perversion of that type, no doubt, but it is what it is.”

Our conversation was cut short by the staccato roar of weapons fire. The alarm had gone out, after all, and people were starting to overcome their surprise, and looking to stop the intruders. A bullet impacted the wall near us, telling me that it was time to move.

“Split into two teams, and sweep the walls! Make sure to close the gates, if you can! I don’t want anyone coming in or out! I’ll draw their attention to the center!”

With that basic plan in place, I leapt, laughing, from the wall, and descended upon the organized fort behind it. As I fell, I set my scythe alight with Hellfire. That showed my position, but that much was fine. The weapons these guards had could not contend with my defenses.

Soon, the cries of surprise turned to roars of anger and vows of revenge. The ‘clones’, as I was calling them for the moment, knew no fear, and had no concept of defeat. I was the enemy, and that was all that mattered.

But they were not able to hurt me, and every kill enhanced my stamina and restored my energy. The barracks were cleared out, as were the armory, and the command post. Bodies fell all about me, but the dungeon threw all the bodies it had at me, trying to overwhelm me.

It failed.

The last of the surface defenders fell next to the staircase that would lead down, to the training facility. Thankfully, dungeon writing was usually translated automatically to the reader’s language, and this dungeon hadn’t changed that. So, I knew exactly where I needed to go.

“D-demon!”

I looked, and saw that my last kill was not quite dead yet. Oh, his torso and his hips were currently lying on the floor, with a good three feet of space between them, but the human monster was not dead yet. More importantly, that wasn’t a human voice, despite the human’s mouth moving. That voice had magic, and power, behind it. It had to be the dungeon itself.

“Oh, is this the dungeon? Pretty strange for one of you lot to be awake so soon. Tell me, are you a slave, or do you help these terrorists willingly?”

The human smirked, the effect more gruesome due to the blood falling from the corners of its mouth. “Allahu akbar!” And then the soldier monster released its dead man’s switch.

KA-BOOM!

The suicide vest he had been wearing went off. Unfortunately for the dungeon, the vest used explosives and materials from the lower-half of the first Tier. Very deadly for the level 1-10 crowd, and would still ruin a level 20’s day, especially at close range. But I was level 30, in a Tier 3 race, with stats that were massively boosted by my time as the Black Knight.

*cough* *cough*

My defenses tanked the shrapnel part of the explosion, as they were meant to. The actual explosion, on the other hand, was elemental damage, which was harder to ignore. Unless, of course, you had the Shadow Armor spell. With my current mana, I reduced the damage taken from incoming attacks by 3120, after other modifiers. The explosion itself was rated for 3000 damage, according to my system logs, and the pieces of building that fell on my head were only 1000 or so each, after my defenses. All of them below the point where they would even make me take damage.

I did, however, have to contend with the dust and sand kicked up by the explosion, which made the whole ‘breathing’ process more complicated than it needed to be. More importantly, the explosion messed up my hair! Really, there was a limit to how much rudeness. I was willing to accept from someone when breaking into their home, and this dungeon was crossing the line.

“Oh well, that’ll just make the question of whether to kill it or not an easy answer.”

As the dust settled, my girls all made their way to where I was, in the center of the camp. All of them were smirking at me. However, Talia was the first to speak.

“Master, did you really need to go that far?”

“Hey! That last part wasn’t me! I wasn’t the one who dressed an officer in a suicide vest, and set it off! That was the Dungeon, controlling all these clones.”

“I am confused,” Rachel said. “If this dungeon is home to a terrorist training camp, why are the walls manned with what looks like American troops?”

Ezraekiel laughed at that. “Oh, so many reasons. First, if anyone comes in, and sees Americans, then survivors are going to get confused, wondering why they were there. And having the ‘infidel demons’ fight off other infidels to protect them from attack is some choice irony, and can be used for propaganda.”

I nodded. “Yes, but I think the real reason is simpler. The dungeon used these guards because they are what it had. And it made these guards so that the terrorists could get used to fighting, and killing, American troops, probably in a variety of situations. Killing their way in might even be a test for recruits getting sent here from other camps.”

“That’s so dishonorable,” Hibari frowned.

I nodded, solemly. “Well, that’s war, when you’re an underdog. Tactics like that are what guerillas and terrorists have used since the dawn of civilization.” I let a wicked grin cross my face. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to slaughter them all. Come!”

Together, we went through the portal, and into the dungeon proper. Instantly, we found ourselves in a different area. A ‘welcome room’, if you will, for either receiving new recruits, or to receive invaders. And a reception was definitely ready for us!

There looked to be a hundred of them, arrayed all around the sides of the wide-open room. Some standing on the ground, others looking down from a balcony. Instantly, I could tell that these were not the dungeon’s creatures. For one thing, they were all too brown to match the Aryan Knockoff Brigade topside. And for another, I could feel the fear and hatred in the air, like it was a palpable thing. These fighters had come to learn to fight the demons, and now a demon had come for them!

“LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND WE LET THE WOMEN LIVE!”

Kameel al-Nassif

Human Male

Level 25 Warlord / Mullah

Titles: Charismatic

Highest Attribute: CHA

Market Value: 26500 gp

I smiled as I noted the one who spoke. A little older than the others. Some grey getting into his beard, too. Probably hadn’t changed too much when the System came online, to keep looking like someone to be respected. At least on the outside.

“Shields, girls.” Those who could, created magic shields to cover the group, while I stepped forward, drawing all eyes on me. “Kameel al-Nassif! Your days of being the misguided spawn of a camel-fucking whore are at an end! You, and all your followers, are accused of being assholes who have no better value in life than to serve as XP for those with the strength to take it! Accordingly, you have been judged by the Demon King of Ceres, and found unworthy of continued existence! Your sentence is death. Sentence to be carried out immediately.”

And then, I moved.

In a flash, I was amongst the fighters. They had System weapons, and System armor, but my blade, wreathed in hellfire, shredded it, burning their body and soul. Men fell with every swing of my spinning scythe, like wheat at harvest time. The Warlord tried to direct his troops, get them to fire, but I was already too close for those nearest me to use their weapons without worrying about friendly fire, and the girls were putting all their energy into shield spells, keeping out the hail of bullets. He didn’t have long to worry about that, however. My blade swung up, under his guard, and impaled him through the gut, stabbing up into his ribcage and puncturing a lung, burning the flesh around the wound as it went, but never cauterizing it. However, he was not dead yet, and my swing lifted him up, off the ground, like a lever, and sent him face first into one of his men, hard enough to pulp both their skulls on impact.

Once he fell, the whole group fell into disarray. The girls, seeing their moment, dropped their shields and went on the attack, spreading into the crowd. A defeat became a rout, but there was nowhere for the fighters to run, and no one to lead them. The rout became a massacre.

And then silence fell, as the last terrorist breathed their last. I took a deep breath, and watched as the others went about looting the corpses, which did not immediately disappear into shards of mana. The terrorists might be dead, but the battle was not yet done.

I still had a dungeon to kill, after all.

Chapter 100 – Call of Battlefield: Medal of Honor: Siege

Rachel frowned as she looked around. “This is…”

“Yeah, I agree.” I shook my head in disgust as we finished clearing the fourth floor of the dungeon. This place had started fucky and gotten worse, fast.

Fighting our way through the dungeon was actually surprisingly easy. Unlike other dungeons, which had a logical progression from floor to floor, allowing you to face harder and harder enemies as you descended, this dungeon had apparently been molded into a training facility. Each floor was its own scenario that prospective fighters would have to go through, each with the same enemy type: human soldiers.

It was so bad that the only changes from floor to floor were the layouts and the scenery. In fact, it looked more like someone had taken one of those military shooter games set in the modern era, and let you play as the terrorists instead of the US troops. One of the scenarios actually had these terrorists, and a plan to try and infiltrate a US army base so that they could plant bombs and blow it up!

The last floor, however, had been a ‘mission’ to take out an American airport, with a TOTALLY not American spy added to the group. Because Joe Smith was completely an Arabic-sounding name. The ‘mission planner’ even said, in English, before the mission started, “No Arabic.”

It was so blatant that anyone who hadn’t literally been living under a rock for the last decade would know the reference. Even people who didn’t play video games would get it, because it had made that big a splash when the controversial game had come out. All the other floors were also copies of game levels, but this one had been especially blatant.

For that alone, it would be worth it to put this dungeon out of my misery.

“How many floors do you think this dungeon has, Master?”

I shook my head. “Hard to say. With the way it is laid out, and the level of difficulty so far? I’d be surprised if it had more than ten or twelve. It may be actually trying to kill us, now, but the dungeon’s forces are designed around training terrorists to shoot it out with the Military, and not die. These are training courses, not actual floors, and even the ‘boss fights’ are just squads with better weapons and gear. There haven’t even been any mages or magic traps, or anything like that, yet!”

“Not to mention that these mock soldiers are completely helpless when it comes to hand-to-hand combat,” Talia spat. “Do they think that American troops aren’t trained to fight when they don’t have a gun in their hand? This is pathetic!”

“Yes, I noticed that, too. It is almost like the mind creating the dungeon had no experience with actual combat, and was basing everything off propaganda and video games. Maybe they fed the dungeon a bunch of military shooter games when it first formed, so they could get the result they wanted?”

“Does it really matter, Master?” Ezraekiel shrugged. “That this dungeon is so pathetic only means we will have to cut short our sport. Doesn’t change anything else.”

“No, it doesn’t. Let’s move on. The sooner we get through these levels, the sooner we can get to the core. And then, the fun begins.”

Continuing on to the next ‘level’, we were separated into solo ‘instances’. The dungeon had done this once before, on a stealth mission, so it wasn’t all that surprising. Just annoying.

The mission was to assault Air Force One, and kill the President, without getting killed. There were staffers and reporters on the flight, as well as secret service. Another game level, and we were playing as the bad guys. But that was fine. It just meant that we were that much closer to actually finishing this shitty dungeon.

I knew all these people were fakes, created by the dungeon, so I had no reason to hold back. Even if someone managed to record this, and broadcast it, I could simply say that I knew they were dungeon creatures, not real people. They were simply NPCs in a game, and they were in my way.

I nearly stumbled mid-swing, almost needing to take a second swing to kill the air marshal riding with the reporters. Suddenly, the dungeon made a lot more sense. Oh, it was still shit, whether you were talking about dungeon standards or by real-world combat training standards. However, the video game comparisons were too spot on to miss, and that gave me the answer of why the dungeon was designed this way. It was made to condition the fighters that trained here to disregard people who weren’t on their team, reducing them to NPCs in a video game, rather than actual people.

It was a sick and twisted bit of psychology, but I’d be damned if it wasn’t effective. It had sucked me in with that thinking, without even having any trainers pushing that thinking my way. Once you viewed the enemy as not really being human, then it became a lot easier to do anything you wanted, and not have a care in the world about it. It wasn’t a new concept, of course. We had to watch out for those kinds of thoughts with people who spent too long in the simulators, after all. But, instead of shying away from the dehumanization, this dungeon doubled down on it!

Not that it was going to help the dungeon, of course. I hadn’t stopped while I considered this. My blade cut through the defenders, who were all armed with weapons that were designed not to hurt the plane. Unfortunately, that meant they also couldn’t hurt me. I barely had to give any attention at all to the lightly-armed, completely identical-looking agents as I slaughtered them.

Finally, I found the President. It was obvious he was the final boss, because he had an assault rifle in each hand, like he was the protagonist of an early nineties video game. He even had the haircut, sunglasses, and muscle shirt, showing off a Mr. Universe-level physique to go with it!

I didn’t bother listening to what he had to say. There was no way that it was going to be worth my time. Probably some trite comment that would have sounded cool to a teenager in 1996, but aged like fine milk if you listened to it today. Either way, he didn’t have anything to say that I was interested in hearing, so I cut his head off, mid-monologue.

The airplane faded around me, just as it had done after the end of each ‘mission’, once the final boss was killed. After a brief period in the blackness between levels, I found myself standing in a… concrete bunker. Like, World War 2, middle of Berlin, Allies closing in on all sides, THAT kind of bunker.

But this was different from the other floors. There was no ’mission planner’ character, for one thing. There were also two doors, clearly marked. One was labeled as an exit, and the other said ‘New Game+’. Apparently, this was the final part of the dungeon, and you could choose to leave, or start the process all over again, perhaps with higher difficulty?

Too bad for the dungeon that, since this was, actually, the last room in the dungeon, its core was here. It wasn’t even trying to hide! There was just a shield up between me and it. Perhaps the dungeon hadn’t had time, or the knowledge, to set up proper defenses yet. Either way, that wasn’t my problem. I knew what I was going to do next.

“Well, little dungeon core, let us see how strong you are when put up against a real demon, not just someone you hate.” I chuckled as I conjured hellfire in either hand, the green-black flames casting an eerie glow across the bunker. For a moment, I let the core admire the flames, before I brought both hands in front of me, and began channeling a constant stream of hellfire into its shield.

The dungeon began to quake as the hellfire burned away the mana sustaining the shield. There was a reason why most dungeons didn’t rely on just a simple energy shield to defend their core, after all! An energy shield would stop my hellfire, temporarily, but the corrupting influence that burnt the soul as well as the flesh would start to seep through, consuming more mana than it should to keep the shield up.

“Oh, Master, you started without us!”

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that my pets had made it out of the final mission. Rachel looked like she had put her healing magic to work healing up a couple shots that had gotten through her defenses, but the others looked unscathed. Though it was hard to tell with Ezraekiel and Zoe, since they had apparently decided to go for the ‘up close and personal’ method, and were covered in enough blood that it had to be two or three people’s worth. Either way, all the girls looked ready to go.

“Ah, girls. Glad you could join me. I was just giving our little dungeon core here a taste of hell. Would you ladies like to chip in?”

Hibari bowed, and said, “With pleasure, Master.”

As one, they began pumping their attacks and skills into the shield, keeping up constant pressure. Together, we began pushing the shield back, inch by inch, until it was just barely keeping the attacks off the core. It was only a matter of time.

I felt a twist in the mana. “Stop! I give up! I’ll do anything, just stop!” At the far side of the room, by the ‘New Game+’ door, was another one of the identical soldiers, unarmed, and carrying a white flag.

I smiled wickedly at the soldier, and did not let up the assault on the core. I recognized it for what it was, the Dungeon talking through one of its creatures. “Oh, I don’t think so, little dungeon core. A core like you, that caters to terrorists, isn’t needed around here. I would ask you how and why you came to be what you are, but I don’t actually care. You made what should have been a glorious romp through a terrorist training camp, slaughtering pieces of shit that no one would miss into a boring slog through second-rate Chinese knock-offs of games that were repetitive and generic when they originally came out! No, I’m thinking I’ll just shatter your core, and burn your soul to the point where not even a resurrection spell will bring you back.”

“No! Don’t you know what happens when you shatter a core? The soldiers will spawn without end! And no one will control them!”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll find some poor, downtrodden people and give them some freedom in the form of high-velocity lead. That is the idiotic stereotype you based them on, right? Hope no one around here has any oil!”

The soldier grit his teeth, the core obviously frustrated. Suddenly, the soldier shifted. Before, he had been in a simple uniform. Now, he had on a suicide vest. “Then, if I cannot stop you, I will at least take some of you out with me! Allahu akbar!”

Nothing happened. Or, to be precise, no explosion happened. The shadows behind the dungeon soldier stirred, and Hibari stepped out of them. “Foolish dungeon. How will you set off explosives, if your explosives are all in pieces?”

Red lines began to spread across the soldier’s skin, in many criss-crossing slashes, before the body, explosives, and everything fell into pieces no larger than the ninja’s fist. With a flick of her blades, Hibari cast off what blood had managed to land on them, and she bowed to me. “I am sorry for acting out of turn, Master, but I could not allow him to endanger the others.”

“No, it is perfectly fine, Hibari. If I wanted mindless drones, incapable of thinking for themselves, I would have become a Necromancer or Golemancer, not a Slave Master. Excellent use of your skills, by the way. [Thousand Cuts] and [Cutting Plane], right? With a [Shadow Step]?”

Hibari nodded. “Yes, Master, you read it perfectly.”

The dungeon screamed in pain, as the final shield began to run out of mana. It flickered, for only a moment, but that was enough for my hellfire to rush through, and engulf the crystal. Soon, it was over.

Notice

You have destroyed a Level 30 Dungeon Core. Dungeon Foe advances to rank 2.

Dungeon Foe 2

+10% Damage vs Dungeon creatures per core enslaved or destroyed.

All Dungeon creatures deal 30% more damage to you.

WARNING!

Warning! Improper destruction of dungeon detected. Mana flows becoming unstable. Bounded space becoming unstable. Ten minutes until complete destabilization and detonation. Minimum safe distance from blast: 20 kilometers.

Looking at the blue box, I frowned. “Ah. Everybody? Run.”

Epilogue – Elsewhere

Being President was not the glorious job that it sounded like when you were a kid. There was a lot of work involved. Long days dealing with politicians, religious leaders, and corporate overlords, all of whom thought that the world revolved around them, and their agendas, both abroad and at home.

It was, to put it bluntly, a pain in the ass.

Especially since he hadn’t actually run for the office! He had never wanted to be President. He still didn’t want to be President. But when the damn Apocalypse kicked off, just over a year ago, he ended up being the highest-ranking survivor in the order of succession.

The President died when Area 51 exploded. The Vice President was killed when his toilet turned into a monster and ate him. Then that brainless idiot Greene from Georgia turned into a zombie, and started biting people. By the time anyone realized what was going on, zombies had overrun the capitol building, because too many conservative representatives and their staffers thought that the reports of zombies were fake news, and tried ignoring the bites. The Speaker of the House died when she, as Acting President, ordered an air strike on her own position, to keep the zombies from spreading to the rest of Washington. And the Secretary of the Treasury was killed by his own security after turning into a Wendigo.

Which left him, the former Secretary of Defense, now President of a country that was still reeling from having 90% of the Legislative Branch wiped out, trying to hold things together at least until the next election, when he could give this job to someone who wanted it. Unfortunately, that was still another year away. Until then, he was the one in charge, so, damn it all, he would do his duty.

The defense contractors and DARPA researchers were all abuzz with delight as they set about reverse-engineering the technology on the pirate ships that had been brought down in the US. Of course, they weren’t just figuring out how to make more of the pirates’ toys. Apparently, they were getting all kinds of ideas about how to mix this magic from the System with good, old, reliable science to make things that, only a year ago, would have been squarely in the realm of science-fiction.

Of course, they were having to combat the risk of ‘brain drain’. That Kingdom of Ceres that just showed up out of nowhere clearly had the edge on everyone. They had actual fighters, and a warship! NASA even reported evidence of ships moving out in the asteroid belt, probably mining. And, before the cloaking device or whatever it was went up, they could clearly see a shipyard at work, making more ships.

Naturally, all the scientists knew that joining Ceres meant that they’d get access to fully realized technology to start working with, instead of busted scraps like those on the ground were forced to use. The lure of that kind of knowledge, just waiting for them, instead of having to reinvent the wheel, was like dangling a steak in front of a pack of starving dogs. The only reason they had any researchers left was because Ceres was being particular, and only taking those who passed some kind of screening process.

The fact that this King of Ceres had apparently been a US Citizen right up until he made the Kingdom was especially galling. If they’d been able to get to him, before then? Well, they wouldn’t be scrambling to catch up in the new Space Race that had been kicked off by that pirate fleet showing up, and proving, once and for all, that humanity was not alone in the universe, and that not everyone out there was friendly.

The economy was also reeling. All pre-system national currencies were essentially being dumped and converted into the System’s currency. Cryptocurrencies had all basically been taken out back and shot, with the various crypto coins being worth less than used toilet paper, currently. Copper Pieces (cp), Silver Pieces (sp), Gold Pieces (gp), and Platinum Pieces (pp) were the new standard. And they were all minted by the System itself, out of thin air, apparently! Even if you had stacks of gold bars, it counted as a trade good, not currency under the System.

The only saving grace was that Unemployment was hovering around 1% for the first time since World War I. Industry was changing, and new roles were opening up all over. Some of that was due to deaths, but there were also plenty of people who were leaving their old jobs to try and be ‘adventurers’, or who were trying their hand at ‘crafting’ professions. Either way, hunting down monsters and diving into dungeons was bringing a steady influx of System currency into the Treasury through income taxes, which helped offset the collapse of traditional currencies.

And here, he’d been, enjoying a quiet evening for the first time since he took office, just finishing a late dinner with his family, when his aide showed up. Aides coming into the Residence, much less during mealtimes, was never a good sign. With a sigh, he downed the last of his wine, and said, “Sorry honey, duty calls.”

Not long after, he was walking into the Situation Room. As expected, there was controlled chaos as people tried to get a read on what was going on. “What do we have?”

General Falcone nodded to the President as he walked in. “Sir. As of twenty minutes ago, satellite surveillance detected a large blast in the North African desert near the Tazirbu oasis in eastern Libya. There are approximately ten villages in the area with a total population of roughly sixty-six hundred people.

“The actual site of the explosion is roughly thirty miles to the southwest of the oasis, in the open desert. It is located at the site of a suspected ISIS training camp, which had been abandoned shortly after the Apocalypse, but was later reestablished. For months, the camp has been using some kind of System tech to blind our satellites, giving us hazy images at best.

“At 01:23 local time, an explosion was detected, clearly visible on satellite. Initial estimates put the blast as roughly equivalent to a 750-kiloton nuclear blast, though that is only a rough estimate. Fortunately, the villages in Tazirbu were well outside the minimum safe distance of twelve and a half miles. Unknown on long-term effects.”

“Wait, nuclear? Are you saying that the terrorists were playing around with NUKES?”

“The situation is more complicated than that, sir. These images were taken just after the blast.” He motioned to a monitor, where an image of some kind of clearly man-made object was seen against the desert. The next image, the object was apparently flying.

“What am I looking at, General?”

“Sir, our analysts suggest that this shape is likely one of the shuttles used by the Kingdom of Ceres. That we are seeing it at all may mean that they had to shut down their cloaking systems temporarily to shield against the blast.”

“Get me a line to the Ceres embassy. I need answers, NOW!”

Dramatis Personae

Zayn Greene – Greater Incubus Male Warlock/Slave Master. Once upon a time, he was a hero, but he was betrayed. Now, disillusioned and intent on not making the same mistakes as he did last time, he is a Warlock who seeks to conquer his way through the post-Apocalyptic world Earth has turned into with the System’s activation.

The Black Knight – Zayn Green’s former title and persona, in the last timeline, when he was a hero. A formidable warrior, he was deceived by those he trusted, and betrayed at the moment of his greatest triumph, the destruction of the Demon Lord.

Jessica Meadows – The Black Knight’s childhood friend and lover. She betrayed him after he had slain the Demon Lord. As a Sorceress, she helped him fight against the Demon Lord.

James Masters – The Black Knight Dark Paladin / Soldier. The former Black Knight’s friend and confidant. As a Priest, he provided necessary support to help him in his fight against the Demon Lord, until he betrayed him with Jessica. He was forced to drink the [Black Knight’s Cursed Potion], changing his race, class, and profession.

Talia Skinner – High Elf Female Battledancer/Entertainer. Zayn’s former next-door neighbor. In an attempt to change his fate, he forced himself upon her, and, following the System’s activation, enslaved her to his will. She is now his obedient servant.

Hibari Kayumi – Human Female Ninja/Alchemist. A 42-year-old housewife, the System has granted her a far more youthful appearance, and increased her physical abilities. Unfortunately, that was not enough to save her from being captured by the goblins that killed her husband and son. She submitted to being Zayn’s slave in return for protection, and being released from the dungeon the goblins imprisoned her in.

Rachel Adams – Human Female Priestess/Enchantress. Talia’s roommate. She returned to the apartment building where they lived, only to find that Talia had been enslaved by Zayn. Following her boyfriend’s duel with Zayn, she now is the warlock’s property.

Shadraus – Elder Lich Male True Eldritch Summoner / Supreme Merchant. Formerly a merchant who followed the Black Knight’s army. Was sent back in time following the betrayal. Currently runs the System Shop for Atlanta.

Zarina Morillo – Beastfolk (Cat) Female Diviner / Scholar. Worked at Bill Turner’s house as his live-in tutor, secretary, and fucktoy. Enslaved by Zayn after she got on his nerves when he turned up to his new house.

James Bay – Human Male Ranger / Groundskeeper. Former US Army Ranger, retired ten years ago. Has worked for the Turner family since then. While he is in his 60s, he has been rejuvenated by the System Apocalypse. Now serves as both the groundskeeper and the lead defender for Zayn’s base of operations.

Luna Varela – Elf Female House Mage / Cook. The cook for Bill Turner, she was abused by her former employer. Her class gives her a wide array of utility around the house, but is not, generally, offensive in nature. She serves as Zayn’s cook, now.

Sameera el-Niazi – Human Female Rogue / Maid. A foreign student at Bill Turner’s college, she was tricked into going to a party where she was drugged, and photographed in compromising situations. Threatening to tell her conservative parents, he blackmailed her into coming to work for him, using her as both a maid and bedwarmer.

Shiva Azari – Human Female Fighter / Maid. Formerly a soccer star in the US on an education visa, Bill Turner got her kicked off her team, and forced her to come to work for him as a maid.

Twilight Labyrinth – Slayer Dungeon / No profession. A nascent dungeon captured and enslaved by Zayn before it could establish itself. Its limited sapience makes it a mostly instinctive creature at the moment, but it understands Zayn’s commands.

Zoe Zafieri – Moon Lamia Female Silver Dragonblood Ranger / Explorer. Zoe was changed by the Apocalypse from a human to the character they created for an online erotic RP group, complete with the name change. A natural submissive, even before her change, she willingly accepted Zayn’s brand after seeing him in action.

Ezraekiel Vasquez – Half-Troll Vampire Female Ranger / Hitman. A member of one of the cartels, the System turned her into a half-troll, while her aunt turned into a Vampire. She managed to kill her aunt, but was turned into a vampire herself. She spent the first month of the Apocalypse trapped in the Lenox Square Mall along with her sister and several survivors.

Zarina Vasquez – Human Female Adept / Enchanter. Younger sister to Ezraekiel, she was not involved in the ‘family business’, since she was still in high school when the Apocalypse happened. While her class lacks raw combat ability, she has shown promise with enchanting magical items. Currently living with Zayn.

Rosie Clark – Human Female Spellsword / Guardian – A detective with the Atlanta Police Department. She fell under Zayn’s sway when he charmed her shortly after the apocalypse, and became his contact with the APD. Her fiancé from before the Apocalypse was sadly killed by the Incubus of Avondale.

Patrick Austin – Human Male Justicar / Detective. Detective Clark’s mentor and partner as a detective. An older man, he is a veteran of the APD, and is bringing Rosie up to speed as a newly promoted detective in the wake of the Apocalypse.

Alexis Costa – Human Female Priestess / Guardian. Officer in the APD, added to the recently formed Systems Crimes Task Force, which hired Zayn as a consultant.

Devin Nixon – Human Male Rogue / Infiltrator. Officer in the APD, added to the recently formed Systems Crimes Task Force, which hired Zayn as a consultant.

Mikaela Rose – Elf Female Water Sorceress / Dancer. Officer in the APD, added to the recently formed Systems Crimes Task Force, which hired Zayn as a consultant.

Dale Matthews – Human Male Fighter / Investigator. Marietta Police Department sergeant who oversaw Zayn’s investigation of disappearances at Kennesaw Mountain.

Patrick Stevens – Human Male Ranger / Woodsman. Park Ranger liaising with Zayn for his investigation at Kennesaw Mountain.

Aura Moonchild – Feytouched Human Female Witch / Diviner. Arcane consultant with the MPD, and helped Zayn open the Prison of the Forgotten One. Also carrying his child.

Nyx – AI. The primary AI of the superdreadnought Black Tear of Night’s Folly. Her exact capabilities are unknown.

Lilith Moonchild – Feytouched Succubus Female Dominatrix / Diviner. The daughter of Aura and Zayn in the future, who came back to the past and was sealed in the Prison of the Forgotten One.

Maylin Gennala – Knelfi Female Fighter / Soldier. A slave bought off the Minion Market to help run the satellite warning system Zayn set up. Formerly key in putting down the 3rd Ykadian Revolt.

Ciliren Fanorin – Knelfi Female Space Mage / Courtesan. A space fanatic that got enslaved to cover debts caused by her obsession. Purchased of the Minion Market to help run Zayn’s early warning system.

Aezrelle – Succubus Female Battledancer / Courtesan. A brothel worker who self-educated herself, and was sold to a military company, who then sold her on the Minion Market. Purchased by Zayn to help run his early warning system.

Character Sheet

Name:

Zayn Greene

Race:

Greater Incubus

Class:

Blood Warlock

Profession:

Slave Master

Level:

30

XP:

435400 / 465000

HP:

34300 / 34300

HP Regen:

343 per half hour

MP:

12480 / 15600

MP Regen:

156 per min

Titles:

Executioner, Dungeon Foe 2, Admiral

Attributes

STR

80 (110)

INT

126 (156)

DEX

80 (110)

WIS

80 (110)

CON

131 (161)

CHA

293 (343)

Luck

34 (64)

Defense

80 (6543)

+7 CHA, +1 INT, +1 CON per level

0 Attribute points remaining

4 Attribute points per level

Currency

$45,202.87

600 CP

38 SP

404 GP

26000 PP

2 diamonds (50gp value each)

Boons

Third-Tier Race

Item Summoning

Minor Creation

Abilities

Racial Abilities

+30 CHA, +10 INT, +10 CON

Gain +3 CHA, +1 INT, +1 CON, +2 Attribute points per level

Gain Seduction, Diplomacy, and Intimidation as racial skills

All Charisma-based skills 25% more effective.

Immunities – Immune to Corruption, Fire, Poison, and Disease

Vulnerability – Vulnerable to Holy

Hellfire – Can summon and manipulate hellfire

Wings – Able to fly with batlike wings. Must be able to extend wings to fly. Cannot carry more than a light load and maintain flight.

Sensual Recharge – Engaging in acts of passion can increase MP and HP regeneration. More involved acts may transfer MP and HP from your partner to you.

Shapeshifting – Able to shapeshift into any humanoid form. Attributes do not change in new form, though may gain physical qualities of the new form (lizardfolk’s scaly hide providing armor, etc.)

Class Abilities

+10 CHA

+2 CHA per Level

Blood Bolt – The standard magical attack of the Warlock class becomes a bolt of blood-red energy. Deals 50% more damage to living targets, 50% less damage to objects, Constructs, Undead, and Oozes.

Blood Magic – Can cast limited number of spells known to other classes. MP cost is 5x normal. Costs HP equal to the normal MP cost. Number of spells known equal to level.

Blood Control – If the blood warlock has a sample of another creature’s blood, they can attempt to control that creature’s body and mind through magic. The victim’s resistance is 50% less effective than normal.

Bloodthirst – The Blood Warlock has a compulsion to drink at least a cup of blood every day. Failure to drink blood every 24 hours results in their gaining a stacking 10% debuff to all actions, healing done and damage caused for every 24 hours they go without until they drink fresh blood.

Profession Abilities

+10 CHA

+2 CHA per level

Slave Brand – Gain the ability to enslave creatures, binding them to your will. Enslaved creatures cannot resist your commands, and gain the Slave title.

Slave Management – Can see your slaves’ Status, and influence it to some degree, depending on level and skills.

Slave Knowledge – Know the direction, distance, and condition of all slaves branded with your mark.

Skills

Racial Skills

Seduction – Increases your ability to seduce individuals. Passively increases your appeal. Active use decreases target’s resistance.

Pheromones – Reduces aggression of all females towards you. May have secondary effects.

Hellfire Magic – Able to cast spells with Hellfire.

Bestow Glamour – Enhance a willing individual’s looks, adding to their CHA, for a price.

Touch of Depravity – Increase an individual’s libido, reduce their WIS temporarily.

Contract Magic – Able to create magically binding contracts.

Fool’s Wisdom – Increase a willing individual’s WIS, for a price.

Intimidation – Increases your ability to frighten or cow individuals. Effects fade when out of your presence.

Diplomacy – Increases your ability to sway others and persuade them. May make friends and influence people.

Desire Reflection – Allows you to project a glamour that makes you look like a viewer’s most desirable romantic partner.

Progenitor – Able to overwhelm barriers to pregnancy.

Kiss of Corruption – Can reduce a person’s resistance to your seduction (and other social skills) with a kiss.

Sensual Violation – Add victim’s HP and MP regeneration to the bonus regeneration from Sensual Recharge when violating an unwilling sentient creature. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Unholy Violation – When violating an unwilling sentient creature, (Your Level – Victim’s Level) percent chance to permanently drain stat points from the victim and add them to your own. Percent chance is doubled for creatures of the Celestial type. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Blood Purity – Eliminate genetic defects or diseases from progeny, no risk of inbreeding. (Costs 2 skill points)

Class Skills

Curse Magic – The study of curses and other afflictions that can be used to hinder and hamper enemies. Includes both short-term afflictions, and more lasting curses.

Destruction Magic – The study of turning magic into pure destructive power, for the purposes of destroying your foes.

Summoning – Allows the warlock to summon a demon to his side. The type of demon depends on the Warlock’s level, skill, and any materials used. Some demons may be hostile to summoners.

Demonology – Gain knowledge about demons and demonic entities.

Soulbinding – Knowledge of the art of creating binding magics and contracts.

Mental Resilience – Your ability to resist hostile enchantments, illusions, and other mind-affecting abilities is increased.

Mettle – Increase your resistance to hostile damaging spells.

Sacrificial Rites – Bestows the knowledge of ritual magic involving sacrifices, allowing the creation of rituals.

Blood Rage – Gain the ability to enter a blood rage, dealing enhanced melee damage, but becoming unable to cast spells for the duration.

Fell Magic – Critical damage from Warlock spells (including Blood Bolt and Blood Magic spells) increased from x2 to x3 (x4 if the target is of ‘good’ alignment).

Sanguine Spells – May deal HP damage to self in order to enhance the power of spells or substitute for needed components.

Planar Knowledge – Knowledge of creatures and magics pertaining to other planes of existence.

Force of Personality – Add your Charisma to the spell damage from all spells. Stacks with similar effects.

Corrupting Spells – Able to infuse your spells with corrupting influence, for a price. (Costs 2 skill points)

Tame Demon Familiar – Allows you to use magic to bind and tame a powerful demon, turning them into your familiar. (Costs 2 skill points)

Charismatic Fortitude – Use CHA instead of CON to determine HP and HP regeneration. (Costs 4 skill points)

Profession Skills

Appraise Value – Able to see the level, race, class, and profession of potential slaves, giving you an idea of their potential value. More information provided at higher ranks.

Training – Able to enhance a slave’s learning speed for skills, or teach the slave new skills.

Taming – Better able to calm emotional slaves, and prevent aggressive slaves from inciting rebellion. Also known as breaking or domesticating.

Expanded Appraisal I – [Appraise Value] now includes titles the target has, as well as their largest attribute.

Dominance – Increased resistance to mental or soul influence.

Brand Capacity I – Increase the number of brands you can maintain to 1 per every 4 points of CHA.

Commanding Aura – Branded slaves gain 10% to all actions while under direct supervision of the Master.

Bargaining – Useful for arranging the best deal when buying or selling slaves. Also useful for all types of pacts or negotiations.

Courtesans – Slaves designated as Courtesans gain +1 CHA per level.

Combat Slaves – Slaves designated as Combat slaves gain +1 CON per level.

Tracking – Able to sense the general direction to all slaves bearing your brand.

Master’s Will – Branded slaves suffer -10% to all rebellious actions.

Expanded Appraisal II – Appraisal now includes the target’s attributes. (Costs 2 points to take)

Body Shaping – Able to create training regimens that will increase physical attributes over time.

General Skills

Weapon Mastery – Proficient with the use of all weapons (not counting vehicle-mounted weapons or siege weapons).

Armor Mastery – Proficient with the use of all armor types and shields.

Auto-Regeneration – Regenerate HP at 200% normal speed.

Toughness – Decrease nonmagical damage taken by 50%.

Magic Resistance – Hostile spells are 50% less effective.

Carnal Arts – Become more skilled in the arts of bringing pleasure to yourself and others.

Sense Motive – The ability to sense when people are lying to you, and to discern ulterior motives.

Inspiration – The ability to make inspiring speeches to get others to follow you.

Knowledge (System) – Conveys general knowledge about the System, its workings, and its limitations. Includes class evolutions.

Knowledge (Dungeons) – Conveys general knowledge about dungeons, their abilities, the different types, and so on. Helps in recognizing patterns and traps in dungeons.

Knowledge (Bestiary) – Conveys general knowledge about monsters and beasts commonly encountered. While not to the level of Anatomy, or a specialized skill, may provide general insight into strengths and weaknesses of a creature, and help with identification.

Arcana – Conveys some knowledge of magic, but is primarily concerned with altering known spells to use new elements or have new effects, creating new spells.

Leadership – Inspire others to follow your lead, and take direction from you. Enhances ability to manage a group in a crisis.

Police Procedures – Imparts knowledge of police procedures, including evidence collection and handling, escalation of force, and communications protocols.

Contract Magic – Unlocks the ability to create magically binding contracts without specialized materials.

Dancing – Increases your skill with various forms of dance.

Naval Strategy – Increases individual’s ability to conduct naval operations on a strategic level.

Naval Tactics – Increases individual’s ability to conduct naval operations on the tactical level.

Ship’s Weapon Proficiency – Increases one’s accuracy and damage with ship-based weaponry.

Situational Awareness – Increases the user’s awareness of events going on around them, even when the situation is chaotic.

Combat Composure – Increases the user’s ability to remain calm and level-headed during combat or other high-stress situations.

Navigation – Increases the ability to navigate to a desired destination, with and without instruments.

Fighter Pilot – Teaches skills needed to fly fighter-style craft.

Shuttle Pilot – Teaches skills needed to fly military and civilian shuttles.

Small Craft Pilot – Teaches skills needed to fly small craft.

Ship Pilot – Teaches skills needed to pilot starships.

Stellar Cartography – More proficient at mapping and analyzing stars and star charts.

Scientific Analysis – Increased ability to use scientific method and knowledge to analyze a situation.

General Scientific Knowledge – A broad-based, mid-level knowledge of various scientific disciplines, providing a foundation for higher understanding.

Advanced Sensor Training – Able to glean greater data from sensors than with Sensor Training.

Anatomy (Humanoid) – Knowledge of the anatomy of humans, and humanoid creatures. Can give insight into the anatomy of other creatures by comparing organs to human ones.

Medicine – Knowledge and skills needed to treat diseases and ailments that don’t require surgery, with or without magic.

Basic Surgery – Knowledge of surgical practices, giving the ability to conduct simple surgeries.

First Aid – Knowledge of field medicine and first aid procedures, including how to stabilize and resuscitate an individual.

Botany – Knowledge of different plant types, and plant biology, including medical or harmful properties.

Virology – Knowledge of different viruses, and how to treat them.

Sanitization – Knowledge of how to prevent the spread of disease, and how to clean up biohazards.

FTL Engineering – Able to maintain, repair, and build FTL drives.

Systems Engineering – Able to maintain, repair, and build ships’ systems.

Reactor Engineering – Able to maintain, repair, and build reactors.

Damage Control – Able to make emergency repairs to bring systems online. Also able to triage repairs based on what is most critical.

Advanced Maintenance – Increases operational lifespan of machines and systems, reduces rate of part failure, can catch failures before they happen. Improved version of Basic Maintenance.

Mechanic – Able to build and repair basic mechanical objects, up to simple engines.

Fabrication – Able to create tools and parts required for maintenance and repairs.

Jury-rigging – Able to do temporary repairs with substandard materials.

EVA Familiarization – Able to conduct themselves normally while in zero-G, and outside a ship’s hull.

Emergency Training – Training in emergency procedures, for when a ship is under attack, or has taken damage.

Mining Tools – Able to use mining tools to extract material with a minimum of waste.

Remote Operation – Able to use drones or remote-control systems to as proficiently as one’s own limbs.

Metallurgy – Knowledge of different metals and alloys, and their properties

Heavy Machinery Training – Training in the use and operation of heavy industrial machinery.

Safety Training – Training in industrial safety protocols.

Construction – Training in construction methods and tools

Salvaging – Training in how to deconstruct scrap to extract the most usable material from it

Cutting Tools Proficiency – Proficiency with the use of various industrial cutting tools for noncombat uses.

Welding – Training in different types of welds, including which welds are best used for certain jobs.

Fleet Command – Increases abilities at commanding a fleet of ships.

0 Skill points remaining

Primary Slaves

Talia Skinner – High Elf Female, Level 27 Battledancer / Entertainer

Hibari Kayumi - Human Female, Level 27 Ninja / Alchemist

Rachel Adams – Human Female, Level 27 Priestess / Enchantress

Available Skills:

Note: Your available skills are based on your Race, Class, Profession, and activities.

Racial Skills:

Aerial Defender – Gain 10% to Defense while in flight.

Summon Demons – Summon demons to your side. Demons are not bound, and must be either bargained with or otherwise subdued. (Costs 2 points to take)

Class Skills:

Profession Skills:

Mind Shaping – Able to create training regimens that will increase mental attributes over time.

Artisan Slaves – Slaves designated as Artisans gain +1 INT or DEX per level (chosen at designation).

Adept Slaves – Slaves designated as Adepts gain +1 INT or +1 WIS per level (chosen at designation).

General Skills:

Autopsy – Imparts knowledge of autopsy procedures, as well as the knowledge of how to search for and diagnose cause of death.

Harvesting – Increases your ability to harvest useful reagents and materials from corpses. May replace automatic dungeon loot.

Forgery – Increases your ability to make convincing forgeries of documents and other items.

Spells

Spells Known

Summoning

Shadow Armor – Wraps your body in armor made from shadows, aiding in your defense.

Curse

Affliction of Weakness – Reduce target’s STR by caster’s CHA for 1 min. A creature reduced to 0 STR falls prone and is considered helpless. Multiple uses of this curse on the same target do not stack. Instead, the duration is reset, as though cast by the caster with the higher CHA.

Affliction of Infirmity – Reduce target’s CON by caster’s CHA for 1 min. A creature reduced to 0 CON is instantly slain. Multiple uses of this curse on the same target do not stack. Instead, the duration is reset, as though cast by the caster with the higher CHA.

Affliction of Ugliness – Reduce target’s CHA by caster’s CHA for 1 min. A creature reduced to 0 CHA falls into a catatonic state and is considered helpless. Multiple uses of this curse on the same target do not stack. Instead, the duration is reset, as though cast by the caster with the higher CHA.

Suppress Emotions – A temporary curse that prevents the target from feeling any strong emotions, positive or negative. Can counter and suppress emotion-based effects like a Barbarian’s rage, or spells designed to spark infatuation.

Destruction

Spellblade – Channel spells or magical energy through a melee attack.

Hammerblast – Deals CHA damage to target creature or object. Damage to Creatures reduced by target’s CON. Damage to objects ignores armor.

Hellfire Blade – Use your demonic heritage to channel the fires of Hell itself through your melee attacks.

Arcane Barrage – Unleash a volley of unerring bolts of magical force against your enemies.

Hellfire Barrage – Unleash a volley of unerring bolts of Hellfire against your enemies.

Blood

Cunning Linguist – Use a kiss, with tongue, to learn a language for 24 hours. Only one language can be learned in this way at a time.

Mystic Eye – See magical items and effects, and identify their uses.

Craft Basic Homunculus – Use blood to create a temporary servant.

General

Heal – A more inefficient, touch-range version of a Priest’s basic healing spell.

Mending – A more inefficient version of a Wizard’s basic spell, repairs damaged objects.

Mark Enemy – A more inefficient version of a Ranger’s basic tracking spell, allowing you to keep track of an enemy’s moves in combat.

Shadow Armor

Wraps your body in armor made from shadows, aiding in your defense.

Cost: 20% of Maximum MP reserved

Duration: Until canceled or dispelled.

Defense increased by amount equal to MP reserved. (Stacks with worn armor and other effects.)

Reduces damage received by amount equal to MP reserved.

Receiving damage equal to 2x MP reserved (before reduction) in a single attack ends the spell.

Hellfire Blade

Use your demonic heritage to channel the fires of Hell itself through your melee attacks.

Cost: 300 MP, 300 HP

Target: Melee weapon or natural attack

Duration: Until canceled or dispelled.

Add INT+CHA to damage of melee weapon enhanced by the effect. This damage is Hellfire damage.

Melee weapons enhanced by this spell take 10% durability damage every 5 seconds while this spell is in effect (minimum 10% durability damage).

Becoming disarmed ends the spell.

Spellblade

Channel spells or magical energy through a melee attack.

Cost: 100 MP, 2 MP per second

Target: Melee weapon or natural attack

Duration: Until canceled or dispelled.

Add INT+CHA to damage of melee weapon enhanced by the effect.

Becoming disarmed ends the spell.

Cunning Linguist

Use a kiss, with tongue, to learn a language for 24 hours. Only one language can be learned in this way at a time.

Cost: 250 MP, 50 HP

Target: Creature kissed

Duration: 24 hours

Able to understand, speak, read, and write languages known by the individual kissed for the duration.

Heal

A more inefficient, touch-range version of a Priest’s basic healing spell.

Cost: 200 MP

Target: Self or Creature touched.

Duration: Instant

Heals the target of damage equal to caster’s WIS.

Mending

A more inefficient version of a Wizard’s basic spell, repairs damaged objects.

Cost: 200 MP

Target: Nonmagical item touched.

Duration: Instant

Repairs nonmagical item weighing less than INT pounds. Must have all the pieces of the item, or suitable materials for repairs.

Mark Enemy

A more inefficient version of a Ranger’s basic tracking spell, allowing you to keep track of an enemy’s moves in combat.

Cost: 20 MP

Target: Creature you can see within 30’

Duration: 10 minutes

Creature becomes marked with a magical symbol only you can see. Marked creature does not gain benefit of stealth or invisibility against you. You can track its movements as long as you are on the same plane, even if creature moves out of the initial cast range.

Only one creature can be marked by you at any one time.

Hammerblast

A blast of arcane power, particularly suited to destroying objects it strikes.

Cost: 20 MP

Target: Creature or object up to CHA meters away

Duration: Instant

Deals CHA damage to target creature or object. Damage to Creatures reduced by target’s CON. Damage to objects ignores armor.

Affliction of Weakness

A temporary curse which reduces the target’s STR for 1 minute.

Cost: 150 MP

Target: Creature within (CHA/2, min 5) meters

Duration: 1 minute

Reduce target’s STR by caster’s CHA for 1 min. A creature reduced to 0 STR falls prone and is considered helpless. Multiple uses of this curse on the same target do not stack. Instead, the duration is reset, as though cast by the caster with the higher CHA.

Hellfire Barrage

Unleash a volley of unerring bolts of Hellfire at your enemies.

Cost: 10 MP and 10 HP per bolt

Target: Any number of creatures or objects you can see (or otherwise target) within range, up to the number of missiles launched.

Range: 100 ft + 10 ft/level

Duration: Instant

Launch a number of magical missiles made of hellfire at your targets. These missiles always hit their target, and cannot be evaded, though magical effects may block or mitigate the damage. Each missile does 2xCHA damage to the target. This damage is hellfire damage. Each casting produces 1+(CHA/10, min 0) missiles.

Arcane Barrage

Unleash a volley of unerring bolts of magical force at your enemies.

Cost: 10 MP per bolt

Target: Any number of creatures or objects you can see (or otherwise target) within range, up to the number of missiles launched.

Range: 100 ft + 10 ft/level

Duration: Instant

Cooldown: 6 seconds

Launch a number of magical missiles made of arcane force at your targets. These missiles always hit their target, and cannot be evaded, though magical effects may block or mitigate the damage. Each missile does 2xCHA damage to the target. This damage is force damage.

Mystic Eye

With this spell the flows of magic become visible to you. This allows you to see active magical items, auras, and effects, and gain a sense of their purpose. The information gained is affected by your knowledge.

Cost: 100 MP and 100 HP initially, 1 MP and 1 HP per second to maintain

Target: Self

Duration: Maintained

See magical items and effects, and identify their uses.

Craft Basic Homunculus

The most common use of blood magic, outside of casting spells which one might not possess the qualifications for, is in the use of Homunculi, or Blood Puppets. This spell crafts a simple homunculus to serve you. The caster shapes the homunculus according to their will. The size, toughness, and duration of the homunculus depend on the amount of blood and mana used in its creation. The Basic Homunculus is mindless, but capable of following basic orders.

Cost: Varies

Duration: 1 minute per 32 ounces of blood used in its creation.

The Basic Homunculus is created with 1 HP per ounce of blood used, and has STR and DEX attributes equal to 1/100 of the total ounces of blood used. The Basic Homunculus is created with ablative armor, allowing it to take damage up to 25% of its initial HP before taking HP damage.

Affliction of Infirmity

A temporary curse which reduces the target’s CON for 1 minute.

Cost: 150 MP

Target: Creature within (CHA/2, min 5) meters

Duration: 1 minute

Reduce target’s CON by caster’s CHA for 1 min. A creature reduced to 0 CON is instantly slain. Multiple uses of this curse on the same target do not stack. Instead, the duration is reset, as though cast by the caster with the higher CHA.

Affliction of Ugliness

A temporary curse which reduces the target’s CHA for 1 minute.

Cost: 150 MP

Target: Creature within (CHA/2, min 5) meters

Duration: 1 minute

Reduce target’s CHA by caster’s CHA for 1 min. A creature reduced to 0 CHA falls falls into a catatonic stupor, and is helpless. Multiple uses of this curse on the same target do not stack. Instead, the duration is reset, as though cast by the caster with the higher CHA.

Suppress Emotions

A temporary curse that prevents the target from feeling any strong emotions, positive or negative. Can counter and suppress emotion-based effects like a Barbarian’s rage, or spells designed to spark infatuation.

Cost: 150 MP

Target: Creature Touched

Duration: 1 minute

Prevent the target from experiencing strong emotions. This suppresses natural emotions for the duration. Spells and effects which change the target’s emotional state (like most Charm spells, or things causing a morale bonus or penalty to their actions, or class features like a Barbarian’s rage) are ended immediately and countered for the duration if your Level + CHA is higher than the Level + WIS of the one activating those effects or spells.

Equipment

Account Holder

Zayn Greene

Account Number

13D7b2ĕΨλγΩ

Account Balance

54,486,526 PP

139,452,081 GP

234,149 SP

129,212,234,921 CP

Items Held

Astral Diamond x4

Necklace of the Prophet

Band of Murder

Gauntlets of Stability

Dress of Creation

Ancient Greatcloak of Fire Protection

Cursed Girdle of the Scourge

Steel Greatplate of Demonic Powers

Destiny’s Will, Tower Shield of the Stars

Furious Shoulderguards of Eternal Glory

Kurokishi, Legacy of Dark Fate

Type

Armor Set

Rank

Unique – Scaling

This set of armor has been created by the System for a singular individual. Betrayed by those closest to him, he refused to bow, even at the end. The Black Knight’s Dark Fate has been shattered, and now rests upon those he meets. And yet this legacy remains. Every ten levels, it gains new power.

Soulbound to Zayn Greene

Defense increased by (100 x Level)+CHA

+10 to All Atributes

Defiance of the Fall – 1/Day negate all damage and negative effects for (CHA) seconds. Costs 100% of remaining MP.

Shifting – This armor shifts with the wearer’s form.

Self-repair – This armor will repair itself over time by feeding on the wearer’s MP, even if destroyed.

Absorption – This armor may absorb weapons and armor the wearer owns. This ability allows it to upgrade the materials it is made of, and potentially gain new powers and abilities from the items it absorbs.

Dread Armor – +50% to Intimidation while wearing the armor.

Darksoul Protection – Take 25% less damage from Holy attacks and spells.

Commander’s Aura – Those under your command have 10% increase to all abilities while within line of sight.

Spellmight Bracers of the Dark Lord

Type

Bracers

Rank

Unique

These bracers, made from tanned angel skin, and dyed with demon’s blood, offer a substantial bonus to any who tread the path of darkness. Those who see these bracers know that they are dealing with one who has embraced the dark side.

Indestructible

+10% Defense vs. Holy Spells and Effects

+20 CHA

+10% spell damage while not in direct sunlight

Chimamire

Type

Exotic Two-Handed

Rank

Super Rare

Damage

CHA+CON

Damage Type

Varies

Chimamire (otherwise known as Bloodbringer) is not your typical weapon. In fact, in its idle state, it appears to be nothing so much as a human spine, set into a long handle, with hand grips at appropriate spaces. When held by a user that is bonded to it, however, the skull at the top of the staff opens its mouth, and a blade of blood-red energy emerges from it, curved like a scythe. This weapon requires a bonding ritual to use, after which it is considered soulbound to the user until their death. Chimamire cannot be destroyed by any known means. Any damage done to it is healed by sapping health from its wielder. The blade has two modes, Bloody Blade, and Vampiric Blade, that can be changed at will, by paying 250 HP.

+20 to all stats except defense.

Bloody Blade – Chimamire ignores enemy armor and resistances, and does slashing damage. User takes damage equal to damage inflicted on target.

Vampiric Blade – Chimamire does necrotic damage. User regains health equal to half the damage dealt.

Replica Katana

Type

Sword (1-1/2 Handed)

Rank

Very Common

Damage

1-10 + STR / + 1.5*STR (2hand)

Damage Type

Slashing

This replica katana was designed to be a display piece, for aesthetics rather than combat. Can be used either one-handed or two-handed Not being designed for combat, it has a low durability.

+10 Attack

STARTER: This item and its sheath are Indestructible.

Bowie Knife

Type

Knife

Rank

Common

Damage

1-4 + STR

Damage Type

Slashing / Piercing

This knife was designed to be a functional survival tool, as well as a weapon. Balanced for both close quarters and throwing, it is also effective for skinning, gutting, chopping, and otherwise aiding survival in the wilderness.

Durability: 35/35

+5 Attack

Sacrificial Dagger

Type

Dagger

Rank

Uncommon

Damage

5-20 + STR

Damage Type

Piercing / Slashing

This enchanted dagger is a thing of pure evil, despite the fact that it is all too common for many beings’ taste. This is because, though it can be effectively used as a weapon, its battle effectiveness is wholly a secondary consideration to its true purpose.

Durability 40/40

Sacrifice - When used to kill a sentient creature, gain 10% of their highest attribute score for 24 hours. If the death comes at the end of a sacrificial ritual lasting at least 1 hour, the gains are permanent.

Magic Van

Type

Vehicle

Rank

Common

This panel van has been redesigned and refit to have a hybrid drive system. While in Performance mode, the vehicle uses diesel fuel. While in Economy mode, the vehicle does not use fuel, but has reduced speed and cargo capacity.

Seating: 2

Performance Mode:

Max Speed: 80 MPH

Max Speed with Cargo: 65 MPH

Cargo Capacity: 4500 lbs

Economy Mode:

Max Speed: 65 MPH

Max Speed with Cargo: 55 MPH

Cargo Capacity: 3000 lbs

Knelfi Shadowsoul Transport

Type

Vehicle

Rank

Rare

A personal transport designed to grow with its bonded user, Shadowsoul Transports are rarely seen outside of knelfi space. Shadowsoul transports grow with their users, gaining new abilities every ten levels the user has. This transport has two modes, Performance and Economy. In Performance mode, the transport runs off mana crystals. In Economy mode, the transport is fueled by ambient mana.

Seating: 2

Levitation – Can levitate slightly off the ground while in motion, ignoring penalties for ground condition (though not undergrowth or obstructions). Able to drive across liquids (though will sink if not on solid ground when stopping).

Variable Gravity – Able to change the relative direction (but not force) of gravity relative to itself, allowing the bike and its rider(s) to drive up sheer surfaces, or even upside down. Cannot be used to fly. Normal gravity reasserts itself on rider(s) when they dismount the vehicle.

Performance Mode:

Max Speed: 150 MPH

Economy Mode:

Max Speed: 75 MPH

Hellspawn

Name

Hellspawn

Type

Corvette

Owner

Zayn Greene

Model

Oscuns-Class Shiphunter

Systems

Weapons

Mendelius Point Defense System x2

Y’thran Arms Ion Cannons x2

Imperial Grav-Lance x2

Standard Torpedo Launchers x2 (10 Tiamat torpedoes each)

Hellfire Cannon

Pulse Torpedo Launcher x2 (Dual-side)

Shields

Standard Cruiser Shield System

Armor

Hateforged Warsteel Armor

Sensors

Standard Sensor Suite

Power

Mk. 25 Reactor

Standard Emergency Reactor

Standard Ambient Mana Collector

Drives

Standard Sublight Drive

Standard Warp Drive

Misc

Coolbreeze Heat Sinks

Tokomak Pulse Torpedo Reactor

Multi-Grapple Array

Inhibitor Module

Phased Travel Array

Active Jamming Array

Complement

Crew

50 (9 officers, 1 medic, 40 crew)

10 Passengers/Specialists

Cargo

170 tons

Further Reading

Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul –

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):

Volume 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Complete 1-20 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R5CHNNP

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):

Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF

Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR

SCI Stories (Dark Supervillain story):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL93VQN

Winterborn (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S3S3K8

Dark Fate (Postapocalyptic GameLit):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086S35WZ6

The OP Lich is a Returnee (Isekai Light Novel):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094YR8JTD

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T