The detour had a valuable benefit that none of us could have predicted. It turned out that I didn’t have to go to a village personally to add it to the empire. Any citizen of my empire would do. That meant that I could teleport to the new villages and let the scouts do all of the traveling.

Armed with that knowledge, we sent runners to the remaining villages. I was free to set up camp in the City Under the Mountain and work on awakening the constant arrivals.

Each of the different groups had their own ideas of the kinds of tasks they were most suited for. Nolgrit insisted that the dwarves were best suited to the blacksmith trade, saying, “Dwarves of old were born of the slag beneath the mountains and tempered by the molten breath of Mother Gaia herself. It is only fitting that we find our home in the forge with a hammer and tongs in hand.”

The gnomes didn’t like anything I did, wanting to improve on everything. They insisted on modifying the clothing I made by adding more pockets and utility pouches. The majority of them were thrilled when I offered them the tinkerer class. However, that didn’t mean that the rare exception to the rule didn’t pop up.

I was in the process of awakening a particularly colorful gnome when he whispered in my ear, “I just want to sing. Can you make me sound better?”

Since we already had a bard in the group, I assigned the aspiring gnome the bard class and gave him the perfect pitch trait that I had taken from Stefanie before taking him to meet her. When she saw me approach, I thought I saw a hint of a smile before she saw the grinning gnome standing next to me.

Her expression turned to a scowl as she asked, “What the hell is this?”

I flashed her a smile of my own and said, “He wants to be a bard. I was thinking you could take him under your wing?”

Stefanie scoffed three times before spinning on her heel and walking away without saying a word. I turned to the gnome and said, “I think she likes you.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and sighed. “Perhaps it is my destiny to have a solo career.”

Looking down at the gnome, I checked his menu and discovered his name to be Goonjam. “She just needs a little time to warm up to you. Do you mind if I leave you in this town? There should be plenty of people for you to sing to. I can always take you back to the City Under the Mountain if you don’t like it.”

Goonjam shrugged and said, “I’ll give it a try. This town needs a little gnome in it after all.”

The scouts found new villages every couple of days. When they arrived, I would then accept the new village into the empire and teleport out to heal any surviving villagers. Once the health of the survivors was stabilized, I then proceeded to modify the village’s defenses. I limited my world-building to the basics, designing walls for the village and basic homes.

The trade-off was that the craftsman I was creating would visit and upgrade the villages while I conserved as much mana as possible to awaken people. More and more were arriving at the border, seeking refuge

There were races I hadn’t heard of before, which was saying a lot considering all of the video games I had played in my life. When I arrived back in the City Under the Mountain, I discovered that a race that looked like a cross between a walking rabbit and a cat known as Cabbits had flooded the chamber in an ocean of white fur.

The leader was a rather gruff-looking pink-nosed one named Chaaco, missing half of an ear. She greeted me the moment I arrived, “Welcome back, Emperor Melvin. We would like to offer our services as runners for your empire.”

“Runners?” I asked, picturing a track team. “Do I need runners?”

She nodded emphatically. “Why, yes. Everyone needs runners. Your troll scouts took days where we could make the journey in hours. Not only that but we pride ourselves in traveling quickly while still evading monsters.”

I shrugged and said, “Sounds like a good job to me. Why not?”

It turned out that cabbits were renowned message runners. Awakened ones even more so. I went outside to watch as the first one took off, kicking up a cloud of dust as he sped down the road.

Chaaco explained, “They can run at top speed carrying a maximum of fifty pounds. You will still need a caravan for most supplies but having a trusty cabbit runner can make most deliveries in half the time.”

With the addition of the cabbits, we began discovering a new village every day. Between curing new villagers and awakening the constant influx of refugees, I barely had any time to myself.

Fortunately, Kalli and I always found time for one another in our dreams. She heaved a drawn-out sigh and said, “Is it normal to be exhausted in my dream?”

I laughed and replied, “Well sometimes I am, after we…”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” She giggled, clamping her hand over my mouth.

When she let me go, I continued, “Truthfully, I look forward to bedtime. It’s the only chance I get to be with you.”

Kalli looked up at me as she leaned into my arms. “I’d gladly trade you. Every day is fighting monsters or driving in the Mecharriage. Joe doesn’t want to stop, not that it would be safe to go to any of the towns or villages that we’ve seen. We don’t know who we can trust.”

I stretched out behind Kalli on the couch in the dorm room. We could dream about anything and go anywhere but as long as we were together, any comfortable spot would do.

Wrapping my arms around her, I said, “We are doing the final check for villages this week. Once I’m sure nobody has the plague, I should be able to join you.”

She smiled, snuggling back into me. “That will be nice. I kind of miss being with you for real. Dream you is nice and all but everyone is so tense. Joe is very worried about Wendy.”

“There is one more thing that I need to do,” I started, telling Kalli about my plans. “We need to figure out what’s causing this plague and do something about it. I think I am going to take down the wall.”

She blinked, looking back up at me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You are making everyone immune to the plague. Why do you need to put yourself in danger?”

I took a second to consider my answer, not wanting to worry my girlfriend. “There is more going on in the dark lands than just some random plague. Someone did this to these people. We need to figure out how and why. I have an army with me and there are only a few guards on those walls. This is the perfect time to get answers. If my suspicions are correct, the people you’re headed toward are to blame. Speaking of which, how did you get through the wall?”

Kalli grinned as she explained. “It was Joe. We waited until nightfall and then he made a balloon. We sailed right over the top of them. Nobody even looked up.”

I was a little jealous, imagining Kalli flying through Gaia on an airship. “Are you still flying? That sounds way cooler than the Mecharriage.”

She shook her head. “No. Everyone decided it was safer to stay on the ground. Some monsters fly and it would be bad if we crashed. Enough talk, morning will be here way too soon.”

“Do you think it will work?” Esha asked me as she eyed the gate suspiciously.

I shrugged while pulling up the menu for the wall. “Well, they already know that we are here. We might as well send them a greeting. I’ve never tried this with an occupied structure before.”

It was obvious that we were up to something. I was surrounded by a small army. In the distance, I could make out humans standing on the wall looking directly at us. Realizing it was up to me to make the first move, I began.

DELETE

Half of a wall disappeared. I targeted another.

DELETE

And another.

DELETE

DELETE

DELETE

Slowly but surely, the wall and the gate vanished. Every now and then I watched one of the guards fall to the ground below. When I deleted the tower near the gate, it revealed a dozen armed guards, who fell a couple of feet to the ground in a heap.

They quickly scrambled to their feet and began to flee. Esha whooped and announced, “Just as you predicted, Melvin. They ran away.”

We watched as the guards got smaller and smaller as they continued to run. Unfortunately, they ran right into our trap. We watched as a group of ogres dragged the humans back toward the wall. They kicked and screamed as they clearly did not want to cross into the dark lands.

“Are you sure about this?” Esha asked nervously as she watched them struggle.

I was more sure than I had been as I watched them fight to not cross the line. “They know that they will get the plague if they come in here. That means they know what’s going on. I mean to find out.”

Once they got to the line, the ogres stopped, dragging only one of the human guards across the threshold. I prepared an illusion as they brought him to me.

When they finally arrived, the ogres forced the guard to his knees. I could tell that he already looked sick. Using my harshest voice, I commanded, “Tell me about this plague.”

Still somewhat defiant, he spat on the ground and asked, “Who are you? You are in direct defiance of a royal decree. This area is off-limits.”

I laughed and ignored his question “You may call me General Beiber. What royal decree? Who gave the order? Did they place this plague on the dark lands? Give me a name.”

The guard turned red as he tried to fight the command in my voice. I forced mana into my words as I repeated, “Who is behind all of this?”

“That…is…” He began, gasping for breath. “Above my paygrade.”

Growing annoyed at the lack of information, I continued. “Someone started this plague! Why?”

The guard was beginning to sweat profusely as he answered my question. “I am going to die anyway. The plague was started to quarantine this area without arousing suspicion.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?” I asked, incredulously. “What could possibly be important enough to kill so many people.”

The guard looked down, losing his haughty air for the first time. “Because of the prophecy. It was foretold that a hero would rise up from one of the villages and lead a revolt that would throw the world into chaos.”