First War Page 3

  “Around 6 hours but the temple is quite large, nearly 3 stories with many decorations and then the many idols and things needed to make it a proper temple.” she said.

  “6 hours.” He said.

  He looked at the map, “What is the distance which imps can run in 6 hours without rest? If it’s not running but walking what is the distance?” he asked.

  She blinked and looked at him before walking over and after calculating she formed two circles.

  “How many villages are still unmarked but discovered.” he asked.

  "I do not know.” She said.

  “SCRIBE!” he shouted.

  After a few moments, a scribe came scrambling inside from the scribe office. “My Lord calls!” he said.

  “Do you have all the reported demon tribes we have found in our territory?” he asked.

  “Yes Lord!” he said and ran out. After several minutes, all the scribes in the lord’s house ran with papers which were maps. After holding each map and report, the map would update slowly filling up the territory with the tribe location. There were 12 demon tribes within 6 hours running distance and none of these tribes surpassed 200 individuals.

  “This is pretty good.” he smiled nodding. “What is our copper supply looking like?” he asked.

  “We have quite a lot, master.” an imp scribe said.

  “What is a lot?” he asked.

  The imps looked at each other before a sigh came from the minogida scribe that walked in with some papers, “We have enough to have all captains and commanders with copper armor and weapons as well. This would use a bit over 60% of our stock here in Sanity.” he said.

  "I see.” Akor nodded and closed his eyes and began to think.

  His mind was racing like never before while he was running many problems for over a minute. It was dead silent in the room before he sighed and opened his eyes. “Have the blacksmith start working on copper weapons. Focus on swords and axes until all the militia have weapons. After that make only essential armor, that is, chest plate, shoulder and head pieces for the common soldier. Sergeant rank gets boots and captains full armor.” he said.

  “What of you, master?” the Minogida scribe asked.

  "I have learned magic, I will not be in the front lines and will lead from behind. I require leather armor.” Akor said.

  Leather armor was all he could get on since he didn’t want cloth armor which had little to no defensive force.

  “Yes Master.” the scribe bowed and began to shoo the others out and give out orders.

  “My Lord, are you really going to build the temple so soon?” she asked.

  “Once our troops are fully armored, then we will be more assured to survive. We just finished upgrading the palisade walls with watch towers and strong gates. Without fire magic it will be harder to get on.” He said.

  “But how will we defend with the walls?” she asked.

  “With this.” he said and opened the town walls upgrade page.

  Demon Management

  Demon Towns

  Town Management

  Stone

  564 Unit

  Wood

  365 Units

  Number of Buildings

  Town Walls

  Double Layer Wall

  Requirements:

  Wood 200 units

  Stone 100 units

  Upgrade

  Reinforced Watchtower

  Requirements:

  Wood 250 units

  Stone 100 units

  Upgrade

  “Double layered wall…” She muttered and suddenly remembered that this was the obvious progression of the town walls. After getting these two upgrades, the next upgrade would be stone walls and the second city walls since the maximum size of the inner city walls would be reached with the stone walls. “My Lord is wise.” She said ashamed that she did not remember.

  “Alright, now we will focus on upgrading the walls. Order the imps to extract wood to complete the two projects starting with the double layer wall then reinforce the watchtowers.” he said.

  “Understood my Lord.” Valring said.

  He pressed to upgrade the walls and the imps received the order to build. This included the players who were regarded as subordinates but didn’t get the minion bonus.

  They also gained town contribution which was a new system. When they redeemed points, they could do things from getting better items from Akor or learning special magic if he had any or get titles or something of the sort.

  Since he had yet to found a proper lord-dom, he couldn’t give noble titles but there were many things they could do such as become a guard if they wanted, but they were too weak to do so and common requests didn’t give enough contribution but construction did.

  Since they built the town, it would also slowly make them gain a feeling of honor in the town since they helped build it.

  The time it would take to build it all was 12 hours because it was just that high levelled. It would take even longer when the walls transformed into stone.

  The players were excited and ran to the first work area.

  In the lord’s house, Akor picked the next research skills before going to the underground floors. There were two floors like the upper half and the first floor was like a library study which held the research scrolls and research zone. Two scribes were there to do the research, and the rest did the common work of a scribe.

  “Where is the scroll on meditation?” he asked.

  One of the scribes stopped researching instantly, turned and bowed before running to a shelf bringing out an old scroll and bowed while presenting it. “This is the one Master!” it said.

  He nodded and took the scroll before calling for his royal minion, Adok, to come study with him as the two had studied magic with Akor taking the magic path over the physical path.

  The peg legged imp soon walked in using an old branch as a support.

  “Come, let’s learn a new skill.” Akor said.

  “Yes Master.” Adok said and happily hobbled over and sat beside Akor for them to learn how to meditate.

  Chapter 3

  Sam stood up after a night of gaming and yawned. Like Lucas, she had been working on her domain but her efforts weren’t producing the result she wanted, even after taking care to meet with Lucas now and then.

  "I should go and have a talk with him… I want to know how he was able to push the village to be a town where players can appear… even if I do have my own villages, they’re too violent if I compare with Akor’s.” She muttered as she poured a cup of coffee for herself. “He said something about raising their intelligence, but when I did it they turned to be a lot more military… might be the problem with my own ‘General’... he might be the one pulling the strings to turn them into controlled savages.” She thought aloud as she prepared her breakfast.

  She walked around with only a shirt and underwear as she prepared a simple breakfast. She put some eggs to fry along with some bacon strips before scrambling the eggs. When she was done, she took a piece of bread and stuffed everything on the bread before throwing some ham in the hot pan and fried it a bit and stuffed them with the bacon and egg as her breakfast.

  Sitting down at the table she collected some things in her video feed and after finishing she put on a simple skirt which reached close to her knees. She then took a notebook which contained many problems she faced despite Lucas’ suggestions.

  When she gathered the needed materials, she locked up the house and went to Lucas’ house so she could bombard him for help.

  She clearly saw that his success wasn’t limited to just his passive personality. He was clearly excellent at planning on the administrative side. She took along some notebooks she had from her own studies and her parent which showed some military advice which she had succeeded in but these also had some drawbacks of their own towards her administration.

  Knock! Knock!

  She reached his door rather quickly and waited, hoping he wasn’t out. She was sure
he wasn’t out since he was someone who worried about his finances.

  “Who is it?” the screen turned on.

  "It’s me, I came for some advice about the game.” Sam said.

  The screen turned off and she heard the lockes being opened.

  Slowly the door opened, and a man appeared at the door. Sam blinked as she looked at him and looked at the door number. “Um… sorry did I knock on the wrong door?” She said.

  “What are you talking about? Get in so we can talk about what you need.” Lucas said in his common emotionless tone.

  “A-are you Lucas?!” she asked in shock.

  “Who else would I be?” he asked.

  “WHAT!?” Sam exclaimed.

  It had been only 3 days since she had seem Lucas but the previously skin and bones 170 cm tall young man had turned into a 175 cm tall thin and elegant young man. Because his face was now fuller, his eyes no longer sunken, his hair glossy and well brushed instead of oily. His entire presence had changed.

  Sam walked inside and even noticed his home was drastically changed. Previously he kept his windows mostly closed, but the shades were pulled back and the apartment was well lit and seemed to have gained life.

  “What happened? You are like a different person.” She asked inside.

  "I got my first paycheck.” Lucas said simply.

  "I did as well but that shouldn’t change you so much.” She replied.

  Lucas looked at her and walked into the kitchen before walking out with an item in his hands. She looked at it after he showed her and she finally realized the cause. As a superhuman, he now had nutrition and so his body was rapidly regaining its vitality that had lacked for so long.

  “To think superhumans could change so drastically just because of your food quality.” She said and sat down.

  “So what did you need?” Lucas asked as he sat down.

  “Right, I tried a lot of the ideas you gave me but they aren’t working.” She said and showed him all the previous day’s work she had put in.

  “You are right, it is your general. You want to make demon elites while he wants to make elite shocktroopers.” Lucas said.

  “Seriously!?” she exclaimed.

  Lucas nodded and called up a video of her minions fighting. “Look here, the way they are fighting is just a mad rush even when they have the militia class. This is a sign that they were just using the same crazed methods as a wild imp without a class.” Lucas said.

  He brought up his own imps and showed the clear difference.

  "I can’t believe I am asking you for help with military.” She said.

  "It’s not so much about help. You just need to change the focus. I focus on research while you are trying to expand your territory to reach the same point as me since I have 4 villages.” He said.

  "I have 2 villages.” She said with a frown.

  “Exactly, and all the military is run by the general right?” Lucas asked.

  “Yes.” She replied.

  “Then instead of letting him train them, you train them, teach them formations, teach them tactics. Make them more efficient, give them a way to build an hierarchy, you are the lord so the general shouldn’t be the one commanding your people completely.” Lucas said.

  Sam gasped as if she was suddenly enlightened. His words hit the root of the problem she currently faced because of the rapidly militarising nation that was forming around her.

  “Okay so how about the administration? I tried to make something, but it isn’t forming at all.” She asked.

  “You have the scribe, accountant… architect… wait you only have so few support classes?” He said shocked.

  “Yeah, my general said we needed to be strong to survive in the badlands.” She said.

  “Right. Forget what he said, what you need to do is set a foundation. You need to focus on support and buildings first. You need to ‘depower’ the general who is the most powerful being in your village and increase the number and control power of support classes.” he said.

  “How do I do that?” She asked.

  Lucas frowned and thought deeply before asking for the background of the minotaur.

  “He was a general for one of the dark lords. He abandoned his lord when he was ambushed and is very vengeful.” She replied.

  “Then remove him from his position. He might not be seeing you as a lord but as a convenient power source to get revenge. Take him from his position, don’t leave him as general, then personally train the troops with proper formation and make them less savage.” he replied.

  “What!?” She shouted wide eyed.

  “What?” Lucas asked.

  “You want me to remove him from his position? What if he gets enraged?” she asked.

  “Can he hurt you? From what I remember, once a minion is bound, they have a very strict binding on their souls? I believe they are required to have absolute loyalty and can’t reject your orders. Also, you don’t need to shame him, retire him. Leave him as a military instructor and not a military general.” Lucas gave his suggestion.

  Sam sat down and fell into deep thought nodding. "I see now. Ahaha! That may work although I think he will be really pissed off when I take him out of the picture.” She said.

  “Yeah, anyone would but he came to you and is causing problems for you so you should teach him his place.” Lucas said.

  Her face lit up as her desires burned but she held it back and pulled out some books for other advice on problems she faced but most of them stemmed from resolving the conflicting problem she faced in the military and lack of support classes.

  Lucas as well got advice such as the fact that subordinates could also be turned into militia but they didn’t have the buff that minions got. When they leveled up, they would also follow the stat distribution plan Lucas thought as well. Through this method, it was possible to fill the military and his population rapidly.

  "I noticed your army is really weak.” Sam said to Lucas after seeing his own video feed.

  “That is because I don’t have subordinates.” Lucas said.

  “You should just trap the ones spawning.” She said.

  "I ordered that this morning. I am just waiting now.” He replied and pulled up him giving the orders and many imps guarding the two demon nests to subdue the imps that would leave as soon as they were born.

  “Oh I see.” Sam said understanding his reasoning.

  Knock! Knock!

  A knock came from the door making Lucas look up. “Today is pretty busy.” He said and got up and turned on the door screen. “Hello?” he asked.

  "Is it Mr. Rollin?” a man asked.

  “Yes, who is it?” Lucas asked.

  "I am from Second Life Inc., we are having a special show with certain players. Because you have the first player town, we invite you to appear on the show.” the man said.

  Sam, who was behind Lucas, was shocked. Her jaw dropped wide and her eyes opened wide revealing her gem like eyes completely. “Serious!? Are you going to be on TV?!” she exclaimed.

  Lucas had a conflicted expression as he unlocked the door and looked at the man, “Care to explain?” Lucas asked.

  "Indeed. This is to increase popularity of some of the more discreet players who are accomplishing feats while not attracting attention.” He said.

  Lucas frowned, “What if I don’t want attention?” He asked.

  “Well that is on you. After all, your bonus pay depends on your popularity.” The man said simply and maintaining his business smile.

  Lucas’ voice was trapped in his throat as soon as he heard this words. “Alright, when is the show?” He asked.

  “Tomorrow at 9 am. We will pick you up to transport you to the studio early in the morning.” the man said and looked at Sam. “Oh?! You are Demon Lord Ulra, you were invited as well.” He said.

  “Really? How many people are coming?” She said accepting the invitation without any reluctance unlike Lucas.

  “Several top adventure mode players, the top lord
players and a number of the lords who have a chance to fail.” He replied.

  Her face cramped upon hearing the choices and knew which category she was in. She was very clear about her position. “Okay.” She said sulking and went inside before packing up her things. “Lucas, I will be seeing you, thanks for the help.” She said in a cold voice because of the man’s words. Inside, her motivation and defiance towards the current ranking was burning like a raging flame inside her and she logged in quickly after getting home and having someone call her general.

  Back in Lucas’s home, he closed the door after the man left and ate his breakfast peacefully and then logged in.

  Valring was grinning where he logged in and in front of them were countless tied up imps howling like animals.

  “What is this?” He asked.

  “These are the little newborns who are struggling to leave.” the succubus said grinning.

  “Right, how many are there?” he asked.

  "Imps and minogida together number around 39. 24 imps and 15 minogida in total from the noon birthing hour.” Valring said.

  “How do I make them my minions?” He asked.

  “Proclaim your name while expressing your power.” He said.

  Lucas looked at her with a confused expression.

  The lesser Succubus thought a moment before lifting her clawed hand and formed a fist before a dark aura slowly formed along with a faint pressure.

  “Like this, you express your power by focusing the power from the demon heart. My Lord can also use the command skill to aid you in conquering their mind.” She said.

  “Okay.” Akor said.

  Even as he said so, he scratched his bald head while looking at the bound demons. He first tried to do as Valring had done. He gathered his mana and flowed it to his hand but instead of a black aura, it formed a blue cover.

  There was something he was missing which caused him endless confusion at this moment. “Gather the power from the mana springs but how is that done?” he wondered. He could clearly feel the link to the main heart which fed his current power.