The new apartment was much better than the old slum house. It had a kitchen, living room, large bedroom and bathroom with separate shower and tub.

Lucas’s things were moved in, the few pieces of furniture, his pots and pans, or what he had of them, his bed, clothing and food were all properly stored. Because the house was much bigger, it was rather empty but he didn’t mind, he actually thought it was good as it was since the thin shades let light in and it gave a different atmosphere to his home compared to the somber home he lived in before.

“Thank you for the help.” he said.

“No problem.” The men and women replied and all waved and left.

He sighed before looking at his home. He shook his head before arranging the electronics like the old tv, some pc holo monitors and several old video games. He installed them all in and made sure they all worked before exploring his home.

The bedroom was very large and his single bed felt small but he wouldn’t waste money for a new bed. Finally he entered the bathroom and turned on the water.

“Warm water…” he said and a faint smile appeared on his face before he turned it off. He walked to the living room and just next to the kitchen was a door which stored the washing machines. He looked at his clothing and the baskets and bags of dirty clothing and decided that he should wash up properly.

He divided his clothing by color and then put them to wash. He started with shorts and underwear because he wanted to take a warm bath for once.

He watched tv and surfed the net for information and when the cloths were washed he put them in the dryer and put the rest to wash.

When he finally had clothing to wear, he went in the bath and had a proper bath and scrubbed off the accumulated filth.

He sat in the warm water feeling comfortable.

Grrr!

He moved his hand over his stomach and remembered the feast he had. He lifted his right arm and saw it was a bit thicker than before but he shook his head, “Even super humans have their genetic problems.” He said and stood up.

Drying himself up he walked out of the bath, letting it drain and dried off, as he got out, he saw the mirror and looked at himself. His thin figure which could be described as skin and bones was very unassuming. He had long learned to see himself like this but there was always a sense of self despising when he saw himself.

The messy and shaggy shoulder length hair, the large bags under his eyes and his skinny frame all made him look like a beggar which Lucas hated about his life. He always wondered what he did to deserve life as it was but at the same time he would snort and ignore this. He put in a pair of underwear and shorts and went to put the washed shirts in a dryer while folding his already dried clothing.

When he finished with the legwear he went and boiled some water to eat some instant noodles. He sighed, depressed, as he ate it. He kept remembering the feast while slurping the artificially flavored noodles. The two really can’t be compared.

When he finished, he finished tidying up his clothing before locking the door and syncing his VR gauntlet device to the house’s system. This will warn him when there is someone knocking. His previous home didn’t have this, for obvious reasons, but this one did because there were naturally many more chances of being visited as a company employee. Finally he logged in.

***

While the players returned to their lives, Second Life INC wasn’t still. Together with the many minor studios they were building the channels and on Second Life TV, they personally owned a channel of the company, they began to put up propaganda about the new reality show which would show the life and difficulties of lord class players.

Over the course of a week, they would introduce ten players from several races each day to be able to cover all of the players and they explained their first defining choices which were if they would get the Good Demon titles.

No one really understood this title and just thought it was a joke by the company for avoiding the Hellish Badlands.

The second choice was their choice to accept or not to save the event.

Surprisingly, a lot of Demon lords buckled under the pressure of the Dark Lord’s people and accepted the eggs from whichever race appeared instead of saving the general or advisor they had chosen.

Those who decided against that they would all become enemies of the dark lord’s people and would be regularly targeted.

For other races, they were equally pressured.

Animal races would find either a previously powerful figure that originated from the same race and would face the pressure of monster forces from powerful monsters near them. Monsters were the same.

Sentient race like Dwarfs would face the pressure of either humanoid monster races such as Ogres, Trolls or other dwarfs. Elves were either made to submit to the monarchy of the forests and their forest gods or be hunted and more.

The strangely high difficulty the company put on the backs of the players caused 95% of them to relent but of these, 20% of them actually showed ideas of development to resist these tyrants.

As for the 5% which saved their chosen minion, they all had different strategies to try and develop in the tutorial zone without breaking the level 5 barrier which would deactivate the tutorial barrier protecting them.

The show was like a reality show which passed from 6 pm to 9 pm and actually drew a strangely high public. At the end of the week, each studio already had their large group of players, 10 players from each race.

Akor was under the management of the Dragon Rising studio and made a special section of the website for each character using the information gained by Second Life INC but it wasn’t real life information, it was game information such as his major ‘choices’ and his ‘style’. Beyond that is the videos they added.

There was always someone watching the video feed when they are online through a VR system. This was a very intellectual job which needed a very strong brain to watch at accelerated speeds to be able to pinpoint the points of interests.

At the end of the 7th day the ‘watchers’ logged off and went to their pc’s to edit the chosen things but the one who watched Akor had a headache.

“Hey, what’s the problem?” one of his colleagues asked.

“It’s one of the players, his play style is incredibly boring and he doesn’t make big development choices.” he said.

“Did you use the territory cam?” one of them asked.

“Yeah, i looked all over but he is actually not hunting at all.” he sighed and pulled up the information. “Look, what did he do today?” he said and opened the windows and showed Akor studying and commanding minion quests in bulk.

“Hey! This guy already has the forester class!” one of them said.

“Yeah, he has been doing only stuff like this, he is pretty much only researching support or craft classes and skills. Even more he has yet to research even 1 combat skill to unlock the combat class.” he said.

One of the people pulled up his information, “Akor, the first demon lord, he made the ‘Good Demon’ choice and he saved a succubus from the Devil race.” he said.

“Isn’t he just using strategy to develop his nation without leveling?” one of them asked.

“Yeah but it’s boring as hell. It’s so lame to look through his video feed unlike this guy.” he grinned and shoved Akor and pulled up another Demon lord.

The demon lord was of the Demon (Minotaur) race. He had already reached level 5 and he was one of those who gave into the dark lord who was from the Noble Vampire race.

They accepted to take in the eggs of Strigoi, malformed Tier 1 vampires, and the general of the minotaur demon lord was taken away while flinging curses at him.

He was a very battle ready person and his village was made from the bones and hide of fallen enemy and his food supply was fully meat based. Besides the required research for skills and classes, he raided for resources. There are lots of imp tribes in the Badlands which he had subjected and made them do his resource gathering as tribute, acting exactly as a demon would.

His videos were filled with action.

The group did find him much more interesting and eventually went to their own work.

Akor had only a few videos added while the minotaur had many combat videos published.

***

Demon Management

Demon Towns

Town Resources

Stone

216 Unit

Wood

215 Units

Stone Production

0 /day

Wood Production

10 /day

Food

36.1

Food Consumption

10 /day

Food Production

12 /day

Population

50

House Space

50/50

Nest Spawn rate

24 /day

Wild Spawn rate

5

After a week of hard work, Akor made a lot of progress because of Valring. In terms of research, he unlocked the Farmer class which doubled his food production after the working imps got the class change. Beyond that was carpentry skill which Akor learned and removed all the crude status of his craft window and increase the attack and defence of all his previously crude items by 2.

As shown, the population of the village maxed out extremely quickly because demons have a 1:5 birth rate which means for every 5 members, 1 will be born daily. As the population rose, the 1.2 birth rate every 12 hours of the nest combined with the 1:5 proportion lead 50 member population to have a 24 demon spawn rate. As for the wild spawn, that was 5 excess food for every 1 spawn.

They still appear daily but they don’t stay but they formed small groups after coming. Those lucky enough to come when the eggs hatch leave in large swarms since the imps don’t have a place to stay so they leave.

From what Valring said, these imps will spread out after a while, though in rare cases they might make tribes for themselves.

Now, the most major change is that taming skill was finally implemented and the ranch was built. Several Hairy mountain goats were tamed after much trouble and brought back to be bred and cultivated. Their hair is shaved daily and the balls of hair can be processed into hairy fluff but not yet into yarn since there is no tailor skills.

By now the most basic facilities were built and the appearance of a village had appeared for real. It was no longer shitty fence surrounded hole. With the number of minions, many things were working at higher speed. One of which was combat training, even without researching the skills. Things like throwing or bashing with the club or shields and so on.

Just as Akor walked out of his room and entered the chamber with the Demon heart a prompt appears.

Update

Research: Demon God Recognition complete

Research

Research

Description

Unlocked items

Demon God Recognition

Your research into the celestial beings of the Demon race has shown results. They have responded and you can now see the list of demon gods and their powers, blessings and desires.

Altar

“My lord! My lord! I have completed it! The Demon God Recognition research is complete! We will now be able to choose and receive the blessings of the gods.”

“I saw. Can you tell me about the gods?” Akor asked.

“Of course. The Demon gods are the gods of the demon race, they represent our people in the heavenly realm but because of our numbers and aggressive nature, we and they have been suppressed and they are currently in a weakened state. Though if i remember correctly the holy wars a few thousand years ago gravely injured almost all the gods forcing them to enter an almost complete sleep but not all gods went fully into a sleep. They use a small bit of power to invest in the mortals to regain power through faith. From what i know, at least 90% of the gods during the ancient era are either dead or forgotten.” she said.

“What about choosing one as our god?” He asked.

She she smiled wryly, “I was only able to find the weakest among them, or should i say, the most injured among them, who are all in deep sleep and would take a long while and much faith from our people to awaken them. The more powerful ones will need higher level research of this kind and more knowledge as well as the Altar to contact the heavenly realm to feel their auras and discover their natures and name.” She replied.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“To choose a god, you need to know their name, blessing and nature. Only when you know all three will you be able to form a connection between your people and the god. That said, a god has to be at least half awake to release a blessing and i doubt 49 imps and one succubus can provide that much faith.” She said.

“It’s something to think about.” He said.

Demon Management

Demon Towns

Town Management

Stone

216 Unit

Wood

215 Units

Number of Buildings

Succubus House

Level 1

Stone 50 units

Wood 120 units

Build/Upgrade

1/1

Animal Ranch

Level 1

Wood 90 units

Build/Upgrade

2/3

Forester hut

Level 1

Wood 60 units

Build/Upgrade

1/5

Altar

Level 1

Stone 200

Build/Upgrade

0/1

<<

↓

>>

“Wow, that is a lot of stone for just an altar.” He said but still pressed to build. “Where should it be?” he asked.

“It should be close to the lord’s house. When your house is upgraded to level 2 we will be able to move the already constructed buildings with the special power of the Lord.” She said.

He nodded and found a clear space that the altar fit. It was like a short tower style platform with four claw like pillars at the top.

Once confirmed the material appeared and Akor had all the idle imps to start working. They were very excited about this one. They worked twice as hard to move the material and soon the material was deposited and they began a dance but different form the quick build. This one was long.

The imps cried, dance and shouted their strange construction dance for nearly an hour as the altar slowly formed in sections until the claw like pillars formed.

A bright light shot into the sky.

Update

You have built an altar causing the Gods and Demon Gods to notice you. They now await your next major choice which may greatly change their views of you.

Reading the message, Akor sudden felt a large pressure on him.

“My Lord!” Valring exclaimed.

“W-what is this!?” He said.

“I… I have heard of this, it's a kind of judgement. When the eyes of a god focuses on a person, it is said to be like the world and nature itself is watching you.” She said.

He nodded because that is exactly what he felt.

Since it was like this, it seems he would have to choice a god.

“Can we choose only 1 god?” He asked.

“At the beginning yes, this would be the major figure of the nations religion while those following are minor figures in our pantheon.” She replied.

He swallowed and breathed deeply before walking forward.

The imps felt the pressure and were quiet as they parted to let Akor reach the stairs and walk up. He did not know if it was true or not but the pressure felt even higher as he climbed.

When he reached the peak, it felt like he stood under a waterfall.

Welcome to the God System

Tutorial Guide

The god system is a system unlocked after you build an Altar. Through the system, you will see all the available gods which can be worshiped. This includes Active, Sleeping and Sealed gods.

Each god has a specific relationship, some are enemy and some are allies. By choosing one, their enemies will come to hate you and will make their followers attack you. At the same time, their allies will have friendlier relations with you and your people.

Active

Active gods are gods who did not go to sleep after the great war in the heavenly realm. They invested the last bit of energy in humans and healed using the faith energy humans gave and in a mutual trade, they bless humans for their faith.

Sleeping

Sleeping gods are gods who were gravely injured and unable to remain active. These are also referred to as forgotten gods but through research, their nature, blessing and desires can be uncovered.

Sealed

Gods who were too powerful in the past and to defeat them they had to be sealed. These are the most forgotten because any followers would but hunted by the current religions to make sure the sealed god does not escape.

Looking at the types of gods he took note of the subtle warning for the Sealed gods.

God System

Demon God Name

Nature

Blessing

Desire

Status

Kiwto

God Of Misfortune

Enemies who attack will have a chance of face more natural disasters

Fill the world with misfortune

Active

Edite

Goddess Of Conquest

When going to war over territory, troops will gain a status buff

Lead the greatest war to conquer the leadership of the gods

Active

Radall

God Of Jealousy and Pleasure

When attacking out of envy towards one's wealth, you will grow stronger

To possess all power

Active

Reading one after another, he felt that the current demon gods were all pretty british and arrogant or greedy. He pressed the status and changed it to the sleeping gods.

God System

Demon God Name

Nature

Blessing

Desire

Status

Pyarus

God Of Education

It will become easier to learn skills if they have a proper education system

Awaken and to guide demons down the path of knowledge

Sleeping

Adaldir

God Of Prosperity

Higher drop rate of coins and the land of your people will prosper with more vitality

To see a demon king revitalize the Hellish Badlands

Sleeping

Utia

Goddess Of Wisdom

Research speed increased

To see demons return to being a wise race

Sleeping

Reading the information on the sleeping gods, Akor froze unable to process exactly what he was seeing.

Valring noticed this and carefully walked up there, “My lord, is there a problem?” She asked.

“These sleeping gods, they are demon gods right?” He asked.

“Indeed, the research was only for demon gods and not other race gods.” she said.

“How come they are all so righteous? Actually, how come no other demons worship them?” he asked.

She sighed weakly, “The active gods are all the gods of the Dark Lords. Those who aren’t are very weak and those sleeping cannot wake up because those who worship them are actively hunted.” She replied.

“I see.” he finally understood now. His eyes turned cold and finally understood why demons lived such ‘cruel’ lives. It was the result of idiotic gods of chaos and dark side which kept the gods of the ‘light’ side among the demon gods asleep.

These were racial gods similar to the human gods or elven gods so there were good and bad ones among them. The term demon god only meant racial god and not ‘demonic’ god. When he realized this he looked at the list of sleeping gods and completely decided that he would make a pantheon of sleeping gods who wished to see the demon race restored towards a good path.

“Fine, the first god we shall worship is Pyarus, God of Education.” he said with a smile.

Ironically, his weakness was just that so he took a great fondness to this sleeping god and thought that it would bring not only his nation benefits but to himself in his learning.

Valring was completely shocked but with his choice, the altar shined and a bright burst of light rushed into the air. Different from the chaotic red light demons normally had, this one slowly turned blue and a blue crystal orb came down from the heavens and landed in the clutches of the four claw pillars just within reach of Akor.

He looked surprised but a feeling overtook him and he touched the orb. The light inside it was almost non existent and one could see that this was related to the god.

BOOM!

You have bonded with Pyarus, Demon God of Education.

Because this god is sleeping, you can only obtain the weakest blessing produced by residual power coming from the bond.

Blessing of the God of Education

You and your people are blessed by Pyarus.

+0.5% improvement in learning any skill from a proper skill trainer

+0.5% improvement in leveling skills of any type as long as there is a master or teacher instructing

+0.5% improvement to all demon race residents ability of learning new things

Update

Because you favored a sleeping god, you have been shunned by all active Demon gods.

Gods of other races show some favor towards you and your people and are interested in you. Their religious people are less likely to attack you but the demons of the Dark Lord’s forces will all move to hunt you.

“So it’s true huh? The demon gods really do keep demons as a stupid brutish race. Stupid idiots.” Akor said.

Valring heard this and her face turned pale.

Because you insulted the Demon Gods for making Demons an evil race, you are now despised by the active demon gods and they will actively send their people to attack you.

Akor scowled, “Fine, bring it on.” he said and turned before walking down. “All of you, go and gather stone and wood. Valring, research combat skills next.” he said.

“My Lord, if we fight you will level up.” She said.

“Do i lose levels by dying?” he asked.

“You lose everything by dying.” She said.

His eyes were cold as he heard that. It meant that he would have to start all over and could not level down like most players would think of doing.

“They want to force me out of the tutorial mode but who said we needed to kill?” Akor said suddenly as he realized a very important fact about the leveling system.

When Valring heard his words her eyes widened and she grinned, “Indeed, we don’t need to kill.” She said and soon couldn’t contain her laughter, “My lord is wise indeed. We shall show them your power!” She said.

Akor choose a skill to unlock while he waited for the imps to gather wood and stone. He was going to finish upgrading his home and research the upgrade for it and unlock the next level upgrade for the other buildings.

Although he didn’t like fighting, defending his kingdom was a necessity and he wasn’t that bad at defending when needed. He knew it would take a while for them to arrive so he would first need to upgrade his village and build proper walls instead of fences and improve his minions as fast as possible.

Pressure is what most molded a king and this was but his first test as a leader in this game.