//previously//
Just as the wyvern’s teeth were about to close over my body, the three Igneal Ingots exploded—inside the wyvern’s open mouth, and directly over my chest.
The blinding, burning pain only lasted a split second.
//previously//
You have reached 0 HP.
Your skill “Death’s Defier” has taken effect. +1 HP
Congratulations for killing the Veyrier Mines Region Lord. +5 Available Stat Points.
Level up!
The moment I leveled up, I felt my body heal from all its wounds. The pain vanished—and then the thorns around me cut into my freshly healed skin, causing a new round of pain.
You’re fucking crazy, I thought to Samantha, as I collected the Wyvern Carcass into my Interdimensional Pouch. It was an incredible skill, really, being able to remove a multi-ton weight pressing down on me, with a wave of my hand.
With the carcass gone, the whole bramble dome flexed and stretched upwards, no longer weighed down by the massive creature.
I struggled to right myself, and let myself fall into the cracks that we had made in the dome, scratching my hands and knees horribly in the process, but eventually finding myself on the ground, in a forest of brambles that rose all around me.
<There were several other possible ways to kill the wyvern, but I figured this would be the fastest,> Samantha said, proudly. <You did keep complaining about being in a hurry.>
With the corpse gone, the loot had literally fallen on my lap.
A City Token, and nothing else.
I hadn’t had the MP to spare—or the attention, at least—to put more points into Luck. Hopefully, there was a Wyvern Core inside the wyvern corpse as well. But it looked like I wasn’t receiving any Skill Books or special drops.
<Talking about being in a hurry,> Samantha said. <You have four seconds before your Physical Defense boost runs out.
I immediately rushed to put more points into Physical Defense, and to clear a path around me.
Whatever the energy source was that the Belian Brambles were hiding, the wyvern must have cleared at least enough space to coil up beside it.
So far, every part of the dome had been completely filled by thorns and brambles, but Samantha was betting that in the middle, there would at least be a clearing maintained by the Wyvern.
It was an amusing thought, that the wyvern had been forced to play gardener so that these brambles couldn’t monopolize the benefits from the energy source itself.
With my still-boosted Strength, I made quick work of the brambles.
It took another 30 seconds of invested Strength before I entered the clearing in the center of the bramble dome.
The clearing was about the size of a basketball court, devoid of any plant or animal life.
The ground itself was a marbleized glaze of a familiar, dark-purple hue.
Every inch of the ground was covered in the heat sinking gems, and I had no way of telling how thick the layer of gems was.
Dead center in the clearing was a perfectly circular hole, about ten yards in diameter.
Using Mana Sensing, I could see waves of mana pulsing from the hole, rising up and into the air.
<It’s not just mana,> Samantha said, with a hint of awe in her voice. <This is a vent that leads directly to the World Core. This is a treasure trove of Aether.>
I walked towards the hole. I had to deactivate Mana Sensing in order to look down the hole, since the mana that was gushing out of it was so dense and brilliant.
What is Aether? And what is a World Core?
<Think of Aether as the building blocks of life,> Samantha said. <Without Aether, life would not exist. Pretty much every world that has life on it has a World Core. World Cores are the main source of Aether. Think of it this way. Since you arrived, the Aether in this cavern accelerated the growth of those brambles, the moss, and the flowers. All in under 48 hours.>
<If you think about the Yanir tree, and the Crystal Rose, they both have one thing in common—they convert Aether into a form that humans are able to directly consume—essentially, converting Aether into Stat Points for humans. The Aether vent here is essentially unclaimed, which means in the long term—once you build a city here and invest in the proper infrastructure—you can have a reliable system of helping people grow stronger without fighting. If you were an elf, dwarf, fey, or monster, then you would be able to cultivate here right now, absorbing the Aether in order to directly increase your level. But humans can’t cultivate, except for a few rare exceptions.>This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I tried to process what Samantha was saying. How would you rank the value of the Aether vent? Compared to the 150,000,000 coins that I already have.
<Just the fact that you have to ask that question shows you have no understanding of what’s going on,> Samantha complained. <A World Core is an S-ranked item, Maybe SS, depending on the amount of Aether it produces. This vent is like a continual stream of free energy. Normally, Aether diffuses more gradually, and more evenly, throughout a world. If this vent were discovered on an Acclimated World, the finders could easily expect to sell the land for tens of billions of coins.>
Staring down into the pitch-black hole, that seemed relatively innocuous, I pondered Samantha’s statement.
None of it matters, until I find Justin and Petra.
<Of course,> Samantha said, sounding exasperated. <You should place the city around the vent, of course, which means you’re going to have to include the brambles inside your city. You’ll have to clear them all out later—it’s an incredibly depressing use of Aether. With the amount of Aether in the air here, you could grow pretty much any crop.
Holding the City Token, I selected the alpha symbol in my vision and I was surprised to see that the option to build a city was not available.
What’s going on? I asked Samantha, starting to panic. Why can’t I build a City?
<Technically, you can never just build a City,> Samantha said. <You can only upgrade a city. You will have to build a Town first.>
I sighed in relief, and took out a Town Token from my inventory.
Fortunately, the Schema did all the work. With an aerial view of the area around me, I just had to choose the locations of the walls, the Merchant Faction Store, and the house for the Town Mayor. Towns came with a few other default buildings, like prefab homes, but I decided to hold off on those until I had actual residents.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t just place a building on top of the brambles. The Schema was willing to destroy what it considered smaller/weaker plants and insects in order to build a City, but it wasn’t willing to drastically reshape the land or clear out defining landmarks—like these brambles.
This was why many of the towns I had seen so far were built in parks or clearings—the Schema wouldn’t just remove collapsed buildings.
In addition to the default buildings, I constructed a separate building that would house the Teleportation Circle.
<Don’t include Veyrier Mines in the name of the town,> Samantha said. <It’s best if people can’t figure out the location of this city. It does hold something incredibly valuable.>
With that advice in my mind, I named the city Nova City. My last name, minus one letter. I’d used a few variations of Nova as various usernames, back before the Schema, and it was the first thing that came to mind.
Once I had everything set up, the Schema started construction of my town and then city, and I started clearing my way through the bramble wall again.
As I hacked down the brambles to blaze a path out of the dome, Samantha cleared her throat. <I suppose I haven’t been completely forthcoming about the benefits of Mental Power,> she started. <But at this point for your build, it is rather useless.>
It was obvious what she was trying to do. Recently, I had been putting many of my free points into Mental Power, and Samantha hadn’t been very happy about that decision. It probably made her nervous, knowing that I had six available points that I could “waste” by putting into Mental Power.
You’ve been trying to undersell Mental Power from the moment you first started mind controlling me, I shot back. Everything you say on the subject is suspect.
<At least talk to Uman more before sinking your points into a stat that is relatively useless for you,> Samantha replied. <You won’t believe anything I say anyway.>
Fine.
After what felt like a painfully long wait, I finally received the announcement I had been waiting for.
Congratulations! You are now Lord of two Regions. +1 to all stats when fighting in your Region.
<table width="624">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Name:
</td>
<td width="175">
Jarek
</td>
<td width="148">
Level:
</td>
<td width="164">
26
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
HP:
</td>
<td width="175">
36/36
</td>
<td width="148">
Physical Defense:
</td>
<td width="164">
18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Strength:
</td>
<td width="175">
31 (+5)
</td>
<td width="148">
Mental Power:
</td>
<td width="164">
14
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Dexterity:
</td>
<td width="175">
10 (+5)
</td>
<td width="148">
Agility:
</td>
<td width="164">
10 (+14)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Perception:
</td>
<td width="175">
20 (+2)
</td>
<td width="148">
Luck:
</td>
<td width="164">
11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Mana Pool:
</td>
<td width="175">
81 (+10)
</td>
<td width="148">
Mana Regeneration:
</td>
<td width="164">
34 (+10)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Available Points:
</td>
<td width="175">
6
</td>
<td width="148">
Coins:
</td>
<td width="164">
155,347,000
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Class:
</td>
<td width="175">
Mana Modulator (D-rank)
</td>
<td width="148">
Profession:
</td>
<td width="164">
Rune Master
(E-rank)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Titles:
</td>
<td colspan="3" width="486">
Region Lord (E-rank)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Skills and Spells:
</td>
<td colspan="3" width="486">
Identify (E-rank)
Mana Modulation (D-rank Core)
Death’s Defier (A-rank)
Mana Sensing (E-rank)
Healthy Magic (E-rank)
Don’t Mind Me (D-rank)
Aquatic Respiration (E-rank)
Polyglot (E-rank)
Soul Communion (D-rank)
Cursed Lightning (D-rank)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Affinities:
</td>
<td colspan="3" width="486">
Internal Mana (D-rank Low), External Unattributed Mana (E-rank Low), Soul Magic (D-rank Low)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Equipment:
</td>
<td colspan="3" width="486">
Vampiric Blade (D-rank): +5 Strength, +5 Agility.
Bloodied Battle Robes (D-rank): +5 Mana Pool, +5 Mana Regen.
Imperial Scout Boots (E-rank): +4 Agility.
Greedy Gloves (D-rank): +5 Mana Pool, +5 Mana Regen.
Bonded Blades (D-rank): +5 Dexterity, +5 Agility.
Goat Mask (D-rank): +2 Perception.
Interdimensional Pouch (D-rank):
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="137">
Missions:
</td>
<td colspan="3" width="486">
Zone Offense
Renegade Bounty Hunter
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>