If Vladimir had died already today or in his previous lifetime, it was unknown. But the Vampire was outmatched and he seemed to be painfully aware of that. Around us, in the burnt and ruined city, the scorched undead shambled about.
âState your offer.â
âBefore that, my dear Prince, let me ask. Do you know about the lich KelâCaldor?â
âWhy do you ask?â
âI can sense your blood and tell it is toxic to my kin. I believe a single sip would cause me grievous harm. I know of only one other creature with blood similar to yours, the [Unicorn Queen] of southern Cymeria. While she is the one who killed KelâCaldor, it was a poorly hidden secret that she was capable of reincarnating with her powers intact and a better-kept one that she was incapable of having offspring. I learned that six centuries ago when I worked for the Troll King who ruled at the time and was the champion of the Dungeon of Trials. Since you carry the same blood as her and arenât her descendant, I assumed you might know about KelâCaldor.â
I stared into his red eyes. âDid you work for that lich?â
He was disgusted by the suggestion and shook his head. âWe were rivals. I despised him for his wanton killing and enslavement of mortals. He trapped too many souls between his clones, artifacts, and phylacteries. The [Unicorn Queen] did everyone a favor when she eliminated him and his clones. Especially the rest of the undead community.â
âVery well,â I said, a plan forming in my mind. I couldnât let this âVladâ escape like this. I didnât know how he came here and he was a liability. Since every object here was detached from the planet already, all I had to do was remove him as a contestant for the control of the environment. âCould you please perform a simple jump up? Weâll proceed from there.â
Vladimir was confused but jumped nonetheless. I had all the cards here. When he did, I stored the whole ruined building and part of the square, replacing it with a horizontal sheet of Force.
âNow, Mr. Vladimir, Iâll offer you two choices. One, Iâll make you alive again. You can choose to return to your mortal self or be reborn as an adult of almost any species. Two, youâll become my sworn servant. I have KelâCaldorâs spellbooks and I think I saw a control undead spell there. I can alter it to work on your soul instead of your bodily vessel. Thereâs a third one but thatâs ceasing to exist. You are a liability. As [King] of Raswaria, I cannot let you go.â
He bared his fangs, considered the outcome of the fight for a while, then withdrew a step backward. As he move, I got a glimpse of his ears underneath his long hair. Vlad was an elf that had the ears cut off. By the scars, it wasnât voluntary.
âHow is it possible to make me mortal again?â
I revealed Pandora. The vampire shied away from the golden glow even though it did him no harm.
âI think you know the answer.â
âI wonât become a mortal again. I have a grudge to settle, a deity to kill. One that grieved me much.â Vlad reminisced.
âWho?â
âRhimtar. God of Adventurers, Exploration, and Trade.â
Rhimtar was one of the minor deities. But he wasnât the god of Adventurers before. He was only the patron deity of explorers and merchants.
âSeems heâs grown in power.â
âAt the expense of most of my kind. We had an underground necropolis at the foot of the Wyrmspire and we worshipped Rabhorktaar before he lost the Death domain.â
âTraded. They shuffled domains after Bundeusâ death.â
âIndeed. Rhimtar sent his lackeys to the necropolis and wiped out most of us. His [Pope] killed my wife. I wonât stop until I have my vengeance. Since that happened, we spent centuries rebuilding. Sentient undead isnât easy to find.â
âWhy not just make more?â
âRabhorktaar and Queltphion intervened on our behalf. We made a deal. So long we kill no more than a fair share of mortals, most of them bandits, we wouldnât suffer persecution. Thatâs when Rhimtar acquired the Adventurer domain. He steers Adventurers our way but these arenât members of His church so it doesnât violate our treaty. The few bandits and Adventurers we come across would make terrible undead. We are not evil, Your Majesty.â
âBut that was before the Age of Silence started. The Gods no longer care about this world. Why would you keep your commitments?â
> > Contested Charisma test won.
I was spot-on. Vladimir frowned and looked away.
âA few of us broke our vows. But we hunted them down.â
I knew he wasnât lying. Unless he had maxed out Proficiencies and a ton of Perks to boost his glibness, he wasnât.
âHow did you travel to reach here?â
âI flew in {Bat Form} during the night, buried myself in the earth during the day.â
I raised an eyebrow, âWhy werenât you buried today?â
âOn the Blightâs influence, sunlight isnât immediately fatal. I used Shadow magic to stay active and search for sentient undead.â
I knew we two were the only ones with sentience in this ruined city. The thousands of shambling undead were mindless, just tortured souls bound to their former bodies.
I made up my mind. This guy was too dangerous to let go. âSorry, Vlad.â
He hissed and jumped at me. I let loose my tails and wrapped five around each of his limbs, plus two around the neck and waist. I channeled raw elemental energy through the tails and discharged everything on him. He was burned, frozen, melted, shocked, and so on. Vlad was basically turned to ashes.
I turned the Manastorm at full power and started to cleanse the necropolis. Its Primal Lightning aspect caused the undead to lit up with arcs of electricity as they were turned to ashes. As they were destroyed, I gathered the souls but a decade of undeath left them with not a single shard of sanity. The former inhabitants of Raswaria passed on peacefully, purified by Pandora. The Blight was also unraveled by the sweeping waves of raw mana.
I went around slowly, letting the Manastorm do its job. With Blight this thick lingering in the air, it needed more than a few minutes to clean each section. As I went, I dug out the ruins and sent the rubble to the item box, lowering the ground by a few meters.
It was late afternoon when I finished. Only Vladâs soul remained behind with me and the site of the former capital was a collection of holes and pits. Rebuilding the city would have to wait. I selected a location for the Palace and placed it down, making sure it was level and firmly set in the bedrock below.
I poured more Energy into the spirit so he would regain consciousness. Normally, souls just linger around with the faintest awareness of their surroundings. Only those with strong Spiritual Attributes can remain conscious all the time and Vladimir wasnât one of them.
âLook, Vladimir. This is the cornerstone of a brand new Raswaria. No undead, no suffering so long I can help it. Abandon your undying grudges. Help me build this country.â
âI cannot, Your Majesty,â he honestly replied. âIâd rather move on.â
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Three hundred Charisma and I canât recruit people. I sent Vlad on his way to the Systemâs great soul pool. Then I gathered a handful of the dust left from his body. Blowing the dust away, a small red orb appeared.
> > [Vampire (Undead Lord) Core] â Level 74.
On a hunch, I checked. One of my daily uses of {Four-Leaf Clover} was spent. When? No idea.
Between consuming this Core for a chance to learn a Perk from the Vampire undead species and turning Vlad into a summon, the choice was obvious. I focused on the Core and it crumbled to glittering red particles as Vampire (Undead Lord) occupied my eighth summon slot. Third rank, almost as expensive as the Blue Dragon.
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Using one of the trees in the front yard, I went to the Refuge, intent on bringing everyone back. I found Rhiannon sitting under the shade of the gigantic millennial tree. She and the other women were giggling as Vesper served them. Even Briar and the three dryads were sitting at the table. The two Ladies Seyham were in a state of grace as if they believed to be dreaming.
âPercival!â She flagged me. âCome and join us!â
The silkie standing on the round table looked at me confused. âWelcome back, mist⦠Master.â
Vesper droned until the end then sent a mental snicker.
She was happy to serve but also tired. I approached the table and took the hand Rhiannon offered.
âHow was your day, mom?â I asked as I bowed and kissed her fingers.
âWonderful. This place is magical, and the company couldnât be better.â
âWe can get back anytime,â I commented, âBut if you want to see the Raswarian sunset, we need to go back now. We still have sixteen thousand people in the Sanctuary.â
We said our goodbyes to the fairies and I knew I couldnât bring the human women back so soon. Vesper and Briar would probably need a few decades to recharge their batteries. Mortals were too intense for the two quiet-loving fairies.
I teleported everyone back to the tree I entered from.
âWait, weâre home!â Mona protested. âYou said we were at Raswaria!â
âAnd we are!â Rhiannon gushed. âLook, you canât see this kind of sunset at the capital!â
A hundred meters away, I opened the {Sanctuary Gate} and let people pour out of the extradimensional meadow. Once everyone was out, I created a platform with Force magic and overlayed an illusion of a wooden stage. I brought the women up with me.
âWelcome to Raswaria!â I shouted. âWe are on the site of the former capital. Tomorrow, weâll start retaking this land for ourselves! Within the month, each family will have a decent plot of land in town, or a farm to grow their own crops! As [King-in-Exile] of this land, I grant all of you a Quest. Pledge loyalty to me, settle down, and claim your future! Your rewards will be Raswarian citizenship, a 200% bonus on all Exp earned, five years with no taxation whatsoever, education for your children, free healing at the Matriarch temples, and a hefty sum of Exp.â
I paid around 300 Billion Exp to issue this Quest. The people froze for a moment as they read the prompt in their interfaces and then they erupted with cheer. Nothing gave a promise more credibility than a System message. I bet none of them resented getting caught with the black wagons anymore.
With the Palace staffâs help, we set a feast for the people from the item box. After everyone finished eating on the grass, I used Illusion magic to create a fireworks show.
The people set a tent city on the palace gardens. The lawn was utterly destroyed but it was for a good cause. The unawakened children occupied the guest wing of the Palace while the adults went out to work.
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To cleanse the land of salt, I conjured a dozen hundred Bore Worms for a hundred million Energy. They spread out from the Palace gates and devoured the top layer of salted soil. The ingested salt was too much for them and they died after eating about a hundred meters of dirt, leaving the undigested salt behind. The worm behind the one who died would skip the thick gooey brine and start eating from there onward, dying too.
The people came behind the worms with rakes, tilling the wormsâ âspiceâ and smoothing the ground. Meanwhile, I flew in a spiral pattern, drying the brine pools and storing the blocks of dirt salt in my item box. It was hard, unforgiving work. Nevertheless, the peopleâs spirits were as high as they could be as they reclaimed the land for themselves.
Amina, Madge, and Mona each led a war party. They ranged far ahead of the worms, hunting monsters and scattered undead, making sure it was safe for the people coming behind the summoned monsters.
At the end of the first day, fifteen thousand people and a million worms cleaned only half a kilometer around the Palace. As everyone filed back into the safety of the walls, I let Pandora float over the tent city, a fourth golden moon to soothe everyone with the {Aspect of Gifted Divinity}.
I didnât rest that night. Instead, I went around the cleaned area and created longhouses with Earth magic. The sun rose behind the continent before I finished creating enough housing for all the people.
Two months passed and a city started to grow around the Palace. Raswaria highlands would become a few meters lower by the time all the salt was dealt with but it was inevitable. It had a decade to leach into the ground. Even Nenandil admitted she would have trouble removing the salt from the ground with Water magic.
We tried a few other solutions but the fastest one and with the least loss of material was to use the Bore Worms. They could chew the ground and keep the salt in their stomachs while the dirt, gravel, and stone went on through the intestines and was pooped as fertilized earth. The spice must flow.
Autumn started as we slowed down the conquest of territory to consolidate our gains. I raised a great wall around what would be a booming metropolis for hundreds of thousands of people but it was too big for our meager population. {Borderland Royalty} showed its worth by making Raswaria ignore 75% of the productivity penalties derived from our precarious situation. Lack of tools, lack of infrastructure, poor roads, poor storage, poor housing conditions, ventilation, insulation, you name it. It was a ridiculous Perk and I loved every second it was in effect.
We celebrated our fourteenth birthday with a great feast for the entire population at the Palace. My enchantments held and the sting of coming Winter didnât penetrate the barriers. I let people eat precious (I only had several hundred cubic meters of it left) level 200 dragon [Saint] meat to prepare them for what was coming. Winter. Since we werenât harvesting anything this Fall, we would eat out of my item box with the supplies I accumulated by traveling incognito to most fiefs in the Empire. Buying local and in bulk relieved the merchants of the need to travel and pay the tolls.
We hunkered down for winter. Raswariaâs geography granted it ridiculously chilly winters, comparable to Northern Canada or Alaska. I churned engraved heating Cores made with plentiful first-rank Cores from the [Emperor]âs vault and every family had at least one.
The other seasons werenât as cold and in Summer the gravel beaches down in the Sunset Range could even be used recreationally. The flows of mana added another dimension and unpredictability to the weather patterns.
While the people hunkered down in their insulated stone buildings, I went underneath the city and dug a vast complex of interconnected caves that could allow people to be productive even in the four months of Winter. It wouldnât be ready in time but for the next year.
Another concern was the changes in elevation because of all our digging. Thousands of tons of snow and ice eagerly awaited Spring to thaw and run wild in the countryside. Using my [Cartographer] abilities, I shifted the rivers and dug channels to flow that water away from our settlements. We would need to adapt and make minor adjustments during Spring but for now, it seemed solid.
The morose Winter was quickly replaced by a fast-paced and hectic Spring. Our people were eager to claim their farms and start earning some tax-free money, a magic expression that spurned everyone to great heights no matter which world they lived in. They planted Spring wheat, assorted vegetables, pear, plum, cherry, and frost apples to give the saplings a good twelve months of growth before the next winter.
This time only, I summoned thousands of Bore Worms at the lowest level possible and sent them to till the farms. That saved a lot of time. Meanwhile, the Palace staff was busy writing the deeds to the thousands of farms we handed out to the settlers. Once that was complete, I earned my well-deserved prompt.
> You completed a Quest
>
> Rebuild Raswaria
>
> You completed the Quest in 2.1 years out of 10. The Rewards were adjusted.
>
> You gained the Perk, Royal Boon (ultra-rare): Your Royal Quests now grant 5 times more Exp, up to the amount you spent. They are 20% harder to refuse.
>
> For finishing the quest quickly, you gained the Perk, Trans-Species Royalty (ultra-rare): Minority Species suffer 80% less social penalties due to bias.
Royal boon increased my Exp efficiency when issuing Quests and the recipient would now earn one Exp for every four I spent. It didnât change my costs as I still needed to pay sixty times the base award for their level but they now received fifteen base awards worth of Exp. The second Perk didnât change peopleâs bias. Instead, it allowed those suffering prejudice to ignore the penalties when solving social conflicts through the System. Since most natives accepted social mandates from the System without questioning it, it would slowly make that bias disappear.
All was well in Raswaria, and the distance to the Imperial Capital would allow us great freedom. Thatâs what I thought but the [Emperor] had other ideas. One day, I got a message from the System.
> > You received an Imperial Summon. Contested (Willpower+Charisma+Ego) test won... (failed). You must go to the Imperial Capital as fast as possible.
Another of the Emperorâs cheat Perks. Anyone who failed the check would have to travel to the Imperial Palace as fast as they could. A charge of {Four-Leaf Clover} was used up. Winning the check would tell the Emperor I had bigger numbers than him. I didnât mind as I intended to answer the summons anyway.
The Elder Water Fairy departed from me as I entered the first tree. Two minutes later, I was inside the Imperial Palace gardens.