"Di-Did you do all this?" Sarah asked with a shaky voice. She was currently staring at the vast amount of zombie corpses while she tried to keep what little food was in her stomach from exiting her throat. The sight and smell weren't pleasant in the least, both Ger and Ellie would attest to that.

"No, they fell and died on their own," Daz said sarcastically while he clambered over the gates to his base. Upon reaching the top, he opened his mouth once more, "I already told you I killed over two hundred Zombies, and what do you see here? A bunch of dead Zombies. Don't ask the obvious."

Sarah was a bit shocked by Daz's reply. Now that she took a second to think about it, he was right, but he didn't have to be so mean about it.

"Don't give me that look. Ask something stupid, and I'll treat you like a stupid person. Now hurry up, you three, get over the gate and settle in, go to sleep, browse the shop or whatever, I've got a tight schedule for the immediate future," Daz said in an impatient manner before he took Lyle out of Rimmy's extended arms and jumped over to the other side of the gate, away from the sight of Ger's group. Rimmy quickly climbed over the gate himself and entered the base too.

"He he." A light chuckle escaped Ellie's lips. Sarah spun around and stared at her menacingly.

"Tch, laugh at me again, and I'll punch you, four-eyes," Sarah said to her still giggling twin sister, obviously not in full seriousness as she loved her far too much actually to hurt her.

"He he, twit's soor ewn fult fir been sooped," Ellie replied in an almost inaudible manner. Ger's eyes trembled a little upon hearing his beloved daughter speaking. She rarely ever spoke due to the fact that she was actually deaf which resulted in her gaining a terrible speech impediment that she was heavily bullied for in primary and high school, college and even day-to-day life. Ellie only ever spoke if she felt very comfortable and relaxed.

'It's your own fault for being stupid?' Sarah took a moment to digest what Ellie had said before she formulated a response. "I don't care, laugh at me again, and you'll be blind on top of being deaf!" Sarah said with a smile that only Ellie could see. Sarah was looking right at her sister because she relied on lip-reading to understand people. Ellie smiled back and chuckled again.

"Okay, girls, that's enough. Let's get over this gate; we can't leave Mr Middleton over there all by himself, now can we?" Ger said to the twins. They both laughed and nodded. Thankfully, with the help of Ger, the two had no trouble getting over the eight-foot-tall gate.

Three hosts have entered your base with your permission. Grant then guest, or civil rights?

"Huh? Oh, I guess this is a feature of the base, or maybe my base skill. Hmm, what's the difference between the two?" Daz asked the system after seeing this notification.

Confirmed. Guest rights allow hosts to stay in the owned base, but they may only use the living quarters for a set fee of merit points. Civil rights allow hosts to use their merit points to contribute towards the base in the form of a tax set by the Lord. However, the Lord is responsible for their survival and well-being. They may use all common facilities of the base. Every additional civilian will increase the difficulty of the Lord's daily attacks, while guests shall only have their separate attack directed at the base, nothing more.

"Ohhh, interesting! Make them all civilians!" Daz exclaimed. He was excited at the prospect of a harder attack since he knew that he was now far better equipped to deal with such an attack than last night, and if he were to increase his merit and kill rankings, then he would need to perform more outlandish merits, which a more difficult attack served as a decent opportunity to allow for such.

Confirmed. Sending relevant hosts civilian requests.

"What on Earth? 'The Lord, Daz, has sought of thee to become a subject under his rule, do ye accept?" Ger murmured in confusion. Apparently, he and the girls had received a formal request to become citizens of... whatever Daz's base was called. Thinking up to here, Daz realised that he really needed a new name for the recycling centre.

"Accept that, please. It will make things simpler for you guys. Basically, I kill your monsters, you give me points and get to live here safely, unless I die or some shit. Trust me, okay?" Daz briefly explained.

Ger frowned at Daz's foul language but agreed that it did sound simple enough, but he first urged his daughter to not accept for a moment while he read over the details of the request carefully. Daz understood this, but he was getting a bit impatient, so he chose to ignore the family for now, and walked over to the bothy with Lyle in his arms.

Lyle was light. Very light. Daz found it funny. He couldn't tell really when he was walking to and from the city centre and killing the Slimes, but his boost to his strength stat had really changed him. Lyle felt no heavier than a feather right now, which he found odd. His new strength would take some getting used to it would seem.

After reaching the bothy, Daz placed Lyle in one of the two leather padded seats and left him there with a few high-vis fleeces covering him to keep the man warm. Daz then went to find Rimmy.

Upon finding Rimmy, he saw him carefully inspecting the jewellery that they had taken from Lyle's store. "So, buddy, how do we turn these into energy? Care to show me?" Daz asked.

Rimmy turned to face his master for a while before he nodded his head slowly. He picked up a necklace from the accessories spread out on the ground and crushed it between his crystal fingers. What was left after destroying the golden neckpiece was a large red jewel, presumably a ruby. Rimmy showed it to Daz to make sure he could clearly see everything, and he then put the gem to the small mouthpiece on his face and simply ate it.

"Heh, so we just have to eat them? Let me try," Daz excitedly said before he picked up a ring and pried the tiny emerald that was encrusted into it free. Again, Daz's strength surprised him due to how easy it was to dislodge the precious stone, but he soon pushed the feeling back and steeling himself before he threw the gem down his gullet. It was delicious! Daz was lost for words. He felt fulfilled upon eating it, it was like something missing from his very being had been restored.

[E-Rank Small Emerald (Middle Tier)] has been consumed. 1 Jewelled Core energy has been restored. Jewelled Core energy is now full.

That explained it. After spending the day walking about, killing things and getting shot, he had used up a point of energy, which was now restored. To put it in perspective, it felt like Daz had just woken up from a nice long twelve-hour sleep. What an amazing feeling, Daz thought.

"That felt amazing. You stay here, buddy, eat as many as you need to charge up, I need to make some last minute base adjustment before the attack," Daz said to Rimmy before he reached up and patted the Golem's cold and hard shoulder. Rimmy titled his head in response. "Yeah I don't mind, eat them all if you need to. There are more jewellery stores out there," Daz smiled before he walked away.

Congratulations! You have successfully gained [3] citizens for your base. Gain [97] more to increase your Nobility ranking and to become eligible for the Nobility Ranking list.

"Yay, they accepted, but what's this, another ranking? Guess I need more civilians then, I want those rewards. Ranking rewards haven't disappointed me thus far," Daz whispered to himself as he thought about the two skills and golden access he had gained from the three ranking lists he was currently on.

'That's enough dilly-dallying, I have about forty minutes until the next attack, so, first things first, Higher Identification, Daz's skill, Godly Base Management,' Daz thought and identified his own skill.