I was still within my apartment, but now it had changed, appearing much larger, the room extending out to a distance of a dozen metres in every direction. Standing in the centre was a single metal spike, maybe five centimetres thick and two metres tall. It was a silvery metal, yet it glowed with a myriad of rainbow colours, like an oil slick on water.

This must be my Territory Anchor… Still, it was interesting how the scale of my room had changed. If only I had that much space in the Material world… looking around a bit more I found quite a pile of ether floating in the air around the room, and quickly gathered it in

You currently possess 309 ether.

“Nice, ether for doing nothing. I guess this is my base resource production, around fifty a day?” Still, in any RTS getting resources faster than your opponents was the key to victory, and while I was still not sold on being an Astral Emperor and being embroiled in all sorts of life-threatening battles saving the Earth, I couldn’t be sure my competitors would all be of the same (or even sane) mind, and Exposition-san made it clear there would be others.

The first thing I needed to do was to narrow down my options in terms of what facilities to construct. My wrist glowed silver as I examined my Territory and checked out what options were available. After some pondering I picked the first four that I felt would give me the maximum gain.

They were the Ether Spire, Silo, Spawning Spire, and Defensive Emplacement.

The Ether Spire was a no brainer. Ether Spire Rank 1 – At Your current Territory Rank you may place up to two Ether Spires. These spires will increase the rate your Territory draws Ether from the Astral. If placed in an area of rich ether the level of gain will be increased. In addition if placed in an area with abundant elemental, ????? or ????? resources, then some of this will be accrued as well. Cost 1500 ether.

It was a shame my skill level didn’t appear to be high enough for the full information, but what I could see was enough. The sooner I could build things to increase my ether gain, the sooner I would be able to afford better facilities.

Silo- Rank 1 – This silo will securely store up to 5000 ether, protecting it from theft or loss. You may transfer ether between yourself and this silo at any time. Additional annexes can be built to hold special resources. Cost 500.

Spawning Spire Rank 1 – This Spire can create up to ten basic-class troops based on those you have defeated. These troops are a degraded version of their base type, able only to defend themselves, the Territory and follow simple orders. They cannot gain experience and will not rise in levels. You can currently create lesser spirits, graveyard zombies and weaselkin. Cost 1000.

So there were two things of interest here. The first thing was that the giant rodents I had been fighting must have been weaselkin. The second was that while the Barracks was a superior choice in terms of troops, if I built one I didn’t have any options of troops to build from it, as the requirements appeared far harsher.

Defensive Emplacement Rank 1 – this spire will use stored ether and convert it into an aether bolt to attack those who encroach on your Territory. Additional offensive and defensive armaments can be built with advanced resources. Cost 1500.

And lastly, the Defensive Emplacement has a level of active defence. Having a few of these, as long as I could support the ether drain, would no doubt fend off probing assaults and enemy scouts, as well as give me more peace of mind.

The next stage of preparation was to make sure I was properly armed. Looking around my expanded apartment I could see the knife, bow and last few arrows, as well as my bent railing. There were also a few other bits and pieces lying around. Over the past few days I had considered my options in this regard (in addition to doing some research online). Obviously I was no good with a sword, as I had proved earlier. The bow would be tempting, as attacking from range is what I ideally wanted to do, but I knew from experience being that being any good with it was really hard. That left something simpler, like a spear…

Gathering up the knife and the bent fencepost I decided to head back to the graveyard. There was something I needed from there, and in addition to that, there were zombies and Etherite ores about. If I was careful and avoided dangerous things I should be able to make plenty of ether, as well as sort out my weapon woes.

Exiting my apartment I looked around. It appeared much the same as before, except a circle of silvery light surrounded my apartment building, enclosing the area around it until it ran into other buildings or got more than twenty or so metres away. I could somehow feel that this was the boundary of my Territory. Closing the door behind me I was surprised to see that the outside of my apartment building looked the same as always, despite the inside being bigger. It reminded me of the old Doctor Who videos I used to watch with my mom, sister and Eri-chan when I was a child.

Taking a further look around I noticed that there were no lesser spirits nearby anymore. That was a bit of a shame as free ether was free ether, but I had other plans. I quickly raced towards the graveyard, and after a few minutes I was at the gates, knife in hand. It didn’t take me long to find my first zombie, and I engaged it, using my knife to make quick work of it. There were also a few lesser spirits about, and I plundered them as I went.

It didn’t take too long before I had reached the area of darkness that held the giant tree full of eerie crows. The red glow of the Etherite ore was still there, but it was not what I had come for. I wasn’t going to chance all those giant birds for that. As I approached they eyed me threateningly, but I maintained my slow, steady pace, stopping at the point where they started to become restless.

I quickly spotted what I was looking for. One of the lower branches that was not occupied by the birds, long, thick and straight. Concentrating hard I took a few deep breaths. This was a bit of a gamble, but I was confident that I could pull it off. I channelled my aether and a slashing line of fire burst out, severing the branch with the hissing of steam. As it fell I snatched it with my aether, pulling it towards me even as I was running away. The crows let out a cacophony of cawing, several dozen taking flight and coming after me, red eyes blazing.

I quickly cycled ether into aether, replenishing my stocks to boost my speed. As I fled, the crows began to return to their tree, satisfied that they had driven off the intruder. A brief thought of snatching the Etherite that way had crossed my mind as well, but I doubted the crows would be so quick to retreat if I had done that.

Once I was out of the graveyard I retreated all the way back to my Territory, using up more ether. I didn’t want to be disturbed during the next part, and I was still a little concerned the crows might change their minds and follow me. Once inside my room I examined my possessions. Wait, I could have saved some energy by leaving the iron railing here if I was going to come back anyway…

Putting down the branch I focused my aether and using all of my imagination unleashed fire. There was a series of buzzing hisses of flame and chunks of dark wood flew in every direction. Once the chaos had subsided I was pretty tired, so I absorbed yet more of my limited ether stocks. What remained was a six-foot long pole, made of dark wood burned an even darker shade by my flame. I was quite impressed by my workmanship, actually. I guess working on 3d art and design projects helps with this sort of thing.

The next step was going to be much harder though. Taking up the iron railing I concentrated, this time using pure visualisation rather than converting aether into fire to cut with. I could feel my aether vanishing rapidly, and I converted ether quickly. The drain was still not slowing, so I fed it more and more of my dwindling supply until with a flash the iron bar disintegrated into a series of tough metal threads and a metal pin.

Next was the knife. I used aether to bore a hole in the handle, as well as a matching hole in the wood. I then used my dregs to merge it all together, the ends of the pin flaring out to hold it in place, reinforced by the metal threads.

And done, I have a spear. The wickedly sharp blade of the knife was the head, while the haft was the long smooth branch, trimmed into a pole. I took a few test swings and it seemed solid. With that I sat down with a thump, sweat dripping from me and vanishing into the air. As I expected. Certain things seem to have more of a reality than other things, such as the knife, so I can use those to make things that last here…still, it is NOT cheap to do so…

You currently possess 21 ether.

That had drained an awful lot of ether. And what was worse was that I was pretty low on energy again. Absorbing the last of my ether, I grimaced. Starting from zero again was going to be a pain, but with my weapon I hoped I could make up for the losses quickly.

In any case there is no penalty for getting kicked out due to lack of aether this time. My Territory should still be here when I charge up enough again. I think I’ll stay away from the graveyard for a while, I’d best not provoke the crows any more than I need to.

Shouldering my spear I left my Territory, heading in the other direction. As I wound my way down the narrow streets towards the local store, there were a few lesser spirits to plunder, but there wasn’t much else. It was then as I approached an intersection that I saw something. It looked like another zombie, though this one was a bit more hunched over. It was a man dressed in rags with a pale dead face and black eyes. It was rummaging through a dustbin, large hands tipped with long, discoloured nails digging right in. As I approached it, it raised its head, sniffing at the air. Suddenly it turned to face me, mouth gaping open to reveal an array of long fangs, slick and dirty with carrion.

Moving my spear out in front of me, I took a defensive stance. It knocked aside the bin it was searching and loped towards me, strides long, arms swinging rapidly.

Damn, this one is fast. It might be an elite zombie like the woman in the graveyard. As it surged closer I dropped low and thrust. My aim wasn’t great but the spear stabbed into one arm, shredding it. The zombie reared back away from the blade, giving me time to strike again, blade punching through flesh and into its guts. Ropey, rotting intestines tumbled out, tripping it, giving me time to pull the blade free and hammer it into the zombie’s face. It let out a final groan and collapsed, sparking into ether.

Well, that wasn’t as scary as it could have been. I definitely felt better being a couple of metres away from my enemy, rather than right up in its face. Still, not having enough aether to use in emergencies is foolish. I had best build up a reserve before I worry about building up my Territory. After all, you only live once, right?