The large dinner table in Ryker’s house had been turned into a conference table for an impromptu war council.

Outside of the house, I could still hear the cries, shouts and ringing sounds of battle. With the Centiscythe’s death, and a sizable collection of Mana Shards to power the city’s shield, Reed City was no longer in danger.

“Twenty towns have already fallen,” Ryker started. “The LA Air Force Base has united with several other towns of armed forces, and they are holding strong. Until a few days ago, millions of people still hid in their own houses, not joining towns. Some of them have made it to existing towns as refugees, but most of them have been killed by monsters.

“The military has already reached out to several other towns. They are offering manpower to defeat the monsters, but only if the original Town Mayor resigns, and the Military can reinstate their own man as mayor. About a dozen towns have already agreed to this, but many are waiting to hear from you. I can communicate with the Town Mayors the moment you make your decision.”

I paused, realizing how disconnected I was with my own Region. These numbers didn’t seem real. Millions of people dying, and twenty fallen towns. “How many towns are in the Region?”

“About 200,” Ryker said.

“And I’m guessing they are all low on Mana Shards,” I said, trying to do some mental math.

A Mana Shard normally cost 10,000 coins, but the Merchant’s Faction had upped the price to 50,000 coins each. They were capitalizing on our need. I’d even tried to use my status as a gold-ranked customer, but Mrinda had explained that this type of price-setting among the Merchant Faction was taken seriously—any merchant could make a lot of money by selling the shards at a lower price. It was ironic, in retrospect, that merchants could lose their license for refusing to set monopoly prices.

If I wanted to help as many towns in my Region as I could, the first priority would be to provide each town with a new Mana Shard. That was ten million coins.

I could afford that.

At least make it a loan, Samantha said. You could gain a lot from this. And keep in mind that a Mana Shard will not hold up for long against the attacking monsters. These monster waves will continue for the next week.

“We will offer aid to anyone who needs it,” I said, resolutely. “I will target the most powerful monsters attacking each town. I will also offer a Mana Shard for each town in the form of a no-interest loan. We can also enter some kind of mutual defense pact. Let’s call it the Nova Alliance. Apart from mutual defense, everyone can retain their autonomy.”

Ryker nodded immediately. “Then let’s get to work. If it’s alright with you, I will travel to the various towns and offer them the deal and the funds. That should save you time to fight the monsters.

I nodded, shook his hand, and transferred 10 million coins to him.

Uman, who hadn’t said anything yet, spoke up. “I should go back to Boston and finalize the deal with Henry. I just need the funds…”

“Right,” I said. “How much do you need?”

“50 million.” Uman licked his lips lightly.

It was a lot of money. But I had the vague feeling that this was a worthwhile investment. Uman seemed like the kind of person who could make money multiply, and an information network at my fingertips would be a huge boon. Most importantly, they would help me find Petra.

I shook hands with Uman, transferring 50 million coins to him.

I was spending money quickly, but I could only hope that it was going to the right places. Money is just a tool.

There were a few other people at the table, and they all glanced at me with wide eyes.

I stood up from the table. “Where’s my first target?”

Ryker put his hand on my arm to slow me down. “Before you go, can I get your number?”

I had never before had a grown man in a suit of armor bat his eyelashes at me, and it made me slightly uncomfortable.

By tapping our E-ranked Communication Amulets together, we would be able to quickly communicate with each other, as long as we were each in range of a Communication Tower.

The rest of the day was a blur of teleporting, hasty introductions, and bloody battles. There was some kind of text-based Regional forum that Town Mayors had access to, and everyone who hadn’t already signed up with the Armed Forces quickly accepted my offer.

Whenever I appeared in a new town, I would rush directly through the mobs and target whatever big boss there was. I fought direwolves, giant snails, pterodactyls, massive bears, and Sand Shifters.

Under Samantha’s guidance, I fought conservatively, keeping in mind my own Stamina. I would approach the District Lords under an Invisibility Cloak, and then often decapitate the creatures with a single blow. The District Lords were each around level 45, but none of them posed a serious threat to me.

As a result, most of the time was travel time, to and from my next target.

Many towns had to face multiple District Lords. It made a vague sort of sense—if one boss appeared in each District, but there wasn’t a town in every District, then those bosses would gather forces and attack the nearest towns.

I fought nonstop for the next few hours.

The sun was just starting to set when I received a Schema notice that Nova City was under attack, and the shield’s mana reserves were decreasing.

I was outside a town in Nevada when I got the notice, stalking a Giant Vulture. Flying creatures were the most challenging for me, since I didn’t have a strong enough long-range skill, except for my Cursed Lightning.

Instead of using Cursed Lightning, I was waiting for the vulture to come to me. I was standing, cloaked, next to the carcass of a desert wolf.

I was tempted to immediately rush towards Nova City.

But there was a reason I had invested so much into Nova City’s defenses. The shield could hold for a few more minutes, and I didn’t want to have to hunt this vulture again.

The vulture was an ugly creature. It had a pink, featherless head with disturbingly orange irises and a black beak. Its bedraggled feathers were primarily black, but there were patterns of white running in lines along its sagging belly, giving it the impression of a skeleton.

The vulture finished eating its current prey, and then flew towards the desert wolf I was next to.

I waited until it lowered its head to feast on the bleeding creature below it, and then I struck.

It noticed something when I was just a yard away, but by then it was too late. Empowered by all my floating points in Strength, I killed it with a single strike of my Vampiric Blade, even as it tried to fly away.

I collected the loot and immediately returned to the town—I couldn’t even remember the town’s name, everything had been such a blur recently—and I teleported back to the Reed City.

Samantha suggested.

Alright, I thought back, not seeing any harm in the suggestion.

I had a nearby guard run to fetch Justin and Feng—they were currently fighting from the ramparts of the city, under the watchful eye of Lewis.

“Where are we going?” Justin asked, as he approached me. His leather armor was soaked in blood, but it didn’t look like it was his. He had a longbow slung over his shoulder, and his sword was sheathed at his side. Feng walked next to him and slightly behind him, a wand in his hand.

“Nova City,” I said, leading them to the Teleportation Circle. “Neither of you are allowed to mention anything about this city to anybody else. Is that clear?”

Once they nodded, we teleported together to Nova City.

I immediately jogged towards the wall, to see who would dare attack my city. As I did, I couldn’t help but notice the bramble dome as I passed it. It had grown significantly, taking up the vast majority of the space inside my city.

Just past the wall was a mishmash of monsters. Crystal Golems, Spirits, another Crystal King Crab, and thousands of lava roaches. Nothing looked like it was the level of a Region Lord, at least.

They were all attacking the city’s Mana Shield, and I had the distinct feeling that I was bleeding money.

“Stay on the battlements. I’ll try to leave the monsters immobile and weakened, so you can gain more of the experience. Make sure your soul shields are active.”

I still wasn’t optimized to fight this kind of battle against a horde of weaker opponents. The lava roaches were the most annoying creatures, because there were so many of them.

I focused on the most dangerous creatures, the ones that could drain the city’s shields fastest.

I had something of a grudge against the Crystal King Crab I had fought earlier, and that was one of Samantha’s first targets.

With Samantha starting the battle, rather than myself, I made easy work of the Crystal King Crab. Samantha actually had me jump on top of the crab from a distance. Once I was on top of it, it was largely unable to reach me. With increased Strength, I was able to dismember its limbs, and then I slid underneath it to avoid the spirits that were chasing me.

Once I was underneath the crab, I stabbed its underbelly repeatedly, until I saw its loot appear.

After the crab, I targeted the Golems next.

We fought for an hour, until I received a message from an unusually frantic Ryker that two towns were in danger of falling to the monster hordes.

Since I had plenty of extra town tokens, from the many District Lords I had fought, the first thing I had done when I returned to Nova City was build a Communication Tower. Unfortunately, Samantha said that she doubted the tower’s “signal” would reach through the rocks, Mana Beads, and Xither Crystals surrounding the cavern. But since I was fighting just outside the city, and I hadn’t entered the tunnels, Ryker’s request for help came in loud and clear.

The rest of the night was spent putting out fires. Justin and Feng opted to stay at Nova City—they were able to use ranged attacks to kill the Lava Roaches fairly easily from the protection of the city’s Mana Shield, and it was a great source of experience.

At this point, many of the towns I was visiting looked familiar. It seemed the local District monsters were continuing to gather and attack these towns—the very same towns I had already “saved.”

It wasn’t until 2 a.m. that I finally had the chance to take a brief nap.

Samantha supplied, helpfully.

As I readied myself for bed, I finally had the chance to study my character sheet. The benefit of Hell Week was that I had gained immense experience, leveling up directly from level 26 to level 30. Gaining four levels in one day…

Then, with the four points I had gained, I put them all into Luck.

Name:

Jarek

Level:

30

HP:

40/40

Physical Defense:

18

Strength:

31 (+5)

Mental Power:

14

Dexterity:

10 (+5)

Agility:

10 (+14)

Perception:

20

Luck:

19

Mana Pool:

93 (+10)

Mana Regeneration:

40 (+10)

Available Points:

0

Coins:

70,747,000

Class:

Mana Modulator (D-rank)

Profession:

Rune Master

(E-rank)

Titles:

Region Lord (E-rank)

Skills and Spells:

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)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (D-rank Low), External Unattributed Mana (E-rank Low), Soul Magic (D-rank Low)

Equipment:

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.

Communication Amulet (E-rank):

Interdimensional Pouch (D-rank):

Missions:

Zone Offense

Renegade Bounty Hunter