First Realm,

Planet Orbio,

Headquarters of the dragon brigade.

A tall lean man with muscles that looked on the body of a Greek god walked down the hallway into the large circular conference room. Dark red hair, serpentine gold eyes, a stoic bored look on his face, commander Xerxes chewed on an urai stalk, a poisonous tree found on the planet Orbio, strong enough to make a master revel in pain in less than a minute, to him it was a snack.

Commander Xerxes world burner lead the brutal military arm of the archailect known as the dragon brigade, acting as the wall or blade between the planets and any form of oppression, the dragon brigade was made up of the most brutal, battle hungry monsters the archailect had to offer, outside of the different factions and the monsters they contained too. They held allegiance to no one except the supreme beings and were outside of the tier system, holding administrator rights, literally their words were the words of the supreme beings, and Xerxes was their avatar of destruction.

Standing firmly in the realm of the rulers at level 1500, his sobriquet explained all one needed to know about him, rulers knew a world ending event was about to happen when he moved, which was why this particular issue bothered him as it didn’t involve a world ending event. A report had come in from their branch over the newly assimilated universe the archailect had absorbed that a school belonging to the faction of a ruler had broken the rule of the thirty days no interference and tried to get a head start over the ten other rulers that showed interest in the universe and had paid the usual fee for participation.

Left to Xerxes, he’d order the complete eradication of the rulers’ faction along with their home planet and schools related to them, a thorough cleansing in his opinion, but he had been told to handle the issue without eradicating said ruler from the archailect, his subordinates grumbling about how a fight had been stolen from them.

All members of the brigade were on the path of the sun burning dragon, having the potency to wield the raging flames of an elder sun dragon, it was one of the most devastating paths in the archailect, one that could only be gained from the expert rank and in which one out of five would end up surviving, Xerxes was literally a walking sun, every cell in his body containing enough power to rival a nuclear weapon, the rulers had enough reason to fear him.

Sighing as the woman at his side handed a brown document to him,

“Thank you, Tania, who’s our culprit?” he asked her, opening the file,

“The ruler on the path of a thousand flames” vice commandant Tania replied,

A monster in her own right, also technically a ruler on the path of the sun burning dragon, she was the calm to his rage, the shield to his blade, where he would raze the entire rulers’ legacy to the ground, Tania would find said ruler, break him in front of his entire path members and family while also sending every powerful member under said ruler to the never-ending battle in the frontlines against the abyss, she was the face of the brigade, the harbinger to his finality.

Xerxes glanced through the file, trying to rack his mind about the ruler and coming up short, whoever the ruler was definitely just entered the realm of rulers or hadn’t spent a lot of time in it yet, normally he’d go blazing in to the home of the ruler, few brigade members in tow to lay waste to the entire home planet he was on, but Tania had given him a better idea, seeing as they had no evidence and the advocate they had caught had erased every data implicating him, along with a video recording of him denying his school and the ruler in general had anything to do with it. She had given him a better idea of inviting all ten rulers to a meeting, deciding to quash any future thought of this issue again.

Entering the circular room where eleven chairs surrounded a large table, ten gold chairs and one diamond chair, his, a sign of authority. Seated in the ten chairs were the ten rulers that were to claim the new universe when the thirty-day grace period was done. The very fabric of reality warped around them as each of them tried flexing their muscles in a show of power, their subordinates who stood at their sides and were masters in their own rights were concentrating with their full might not to sustain injuries, their realm struggling under the onslaught of their rulers.

Xerxes sighed, getting the attention of all of them, immediately all forms of show of power seized, reality stabilizing back as the masters sighed in restrained relief. Sitting on his chair, he ran his eyes through them all, observing them all from a position of power, finally his eyes settling on the ruler of a thousand flames, a young-looking man who undoubtedly was hundreds of years old, and from what the archailect was telling him a mage, Xerxes snorted to himself in mirth, the kid was way over his head,

“Why have we been summoned” a woman from the left said, breaking the silence, green hair with green serpentine eyes, a forked tongue that indicated some serpentine specie, Xerxes’ eyes settled on her with all the weight of a person who had been under the scrutiny of all the supreme beings and lived to tell the tale. She wilted back into her chair with a short cough, very well aware that he could eradicate her from reality and no one would utter a single word, in fact the rulers would share her planets and her faction between themselves with glee.

Tania stepped forward,

“You all have been summoned here today as regards an incident and its consequences. As of this moment, the planet c-102, known to its primary inhabitants as earth has been placed on a no occupation zone for the next one month” Tania said,

Immediately the whole room began grumbling, masters placing hands on their weapons or gathering aether in their cores,

“On whose orders?” a ruler in gold robes and gold eyes asked,

“mine” Xerxes said simply as the whole room went mute, his very word made reality shake, he made a note to tone down his intent,

“May we know why honored commander” the serpentine woman spoke, with a tone of pure respect now,

“Because one of you bumbling rulers thought it would be a good idea to go against the laws of the supreme beings as regards non-interference during the thirty-day assimilation period” he replied,

Staring directly at the ruler of the thousand suns who wilted in the chair, all eyes of the rulers turning to that particular one, looks of incredulity in their eyes, Xerxes knew they were all hypocrites, they’d had done the same if they had the chance to. With a simple gesture of one finger, he locked the ruler in place on the chair, the ruler trying desperately to gather intent to push back but breaking under the supreme willpower of Xerxes, his master subordinate took a step forward and was promptly erased from existence with white flames Tania had summoned.

A master was gone in a flash, destroyed without an iota of resistance, the other masters took a step back, aware of their own mortality at this point. Xerxes pointed at the ruler he had chained down to the chair,

“An advocate on the path of the crimson rose, a school under the faction of that ruler over there was caught on the planet trying to set up a stronghold by one of my people, although the advocate denied the hand of the ruler or his faction in said plot, we all know here that he was lying, but seeing as there’s no evidence, well” Xerxes started as he released the ruler who gasped for breath despite being at a stage of advancement that didn’t need any physical breathing,

“I have no choice but to let you go in fairness, however as a deterrent, we have locked down the planet as repercussion for thirty days and the ruler of a thousand suns has decided to magnanimously donate to the planet and whoever finds the remains of the acolytes and lower members of the school that are no doubt dead by now as a cover up. He has gladly donated a bunch of rare skills and at least 2-3 rare manuals on paths under his factions as well as weapons on said paths, haven’t you?” he said, the other rulers looking at the ruler as he pursed his lips and nodded,

“Oh, and lest I forget, no ties to whatever local finds it, even after you all are allowed to land, and believe me we are watching, but please, give me a reason to unleash the dragon brigade on you, the boys are itching for a fight” Xerxes said as the rulers’ eyes widened in barely suppressed fear before nodding again,

Xerxes stood up stretching,

“Good, if that’s done, I hereby conclude this meeting, get out of my domain” he said with finality as all the rulers began blinking out of existence along with their masters, Xerxes held his realm over the ruler of a thousand suns who tried to leave, realizing he couldn’t,

“I’ll be watching you” he said quietly, releasing his realm and watching the ruler blink away also,

“Should we watch his faction?” Tania asked,

“Yh, also keep an eye on that planet, something tells me it’ll be fun” he ordered as she nodded,

“Now I heard a planet was being invaded by abyssal sentries? let’s go have some fun!” he said as Tania sighed, both of them blinking away.

Moyo sat inside the now extended building in bastion, one he had decided to call the core building. In his front was the red rare dungeon core that served as the interface to the stronghold, at his left and right were Annika, Idris, Ayo, Mrs. Martha and Boyle. It was the last day of the grace period and the inhabitants of bastion had rested for a while before trying to place things in order. First was accommodation and while the core building had served as a place of rest, it was stuffy inside, hence Moyo had tasked Mrs. Martha, to see to the construction of cottages, small living quarters close to the core building. Turns out the system built the structure, if resources such as wood or stones were available, so Moyo took most of the warriors out towards the forests surrounding the field which the dome of protection covered, the archers and magicians on the look out from bastion itself and if they sighted any trouble were to raise the alarm by shooting a blast of fire in the air.

All it took was an hour, Moyo calmly cutting down trees in one hit as the warriors gawked in awe, Idris controlling them as the de facto leader and with their high strength attribute, all it took were two men to a tree to lift it back to the stronghold, a few of the men had knowledge on wood cutting, Mrs. Martha going deep in the interface and discovering some sort of system market she dubbed the warehouse where you could buy anything ranging from elixirs of healing to manuals on paths, mostly common and uncommon though, Moyo had told her to hold off on buying paths and just tools for construction, an idea forming in his head.

Together they had cut the woods, and paying the price for a cottage at a thousand bronze coins per structure to build a total of a hundred cottages, the people moving into the homes, their faces filled with gratitude at having an enclosed shelter to protect them from the dangers of the new world they had just found themselves in. Then came the issue of food, security, etc. Different issues arose from drinking water to clothing and the rest. Moyo had wilted as each new task arose, Mrs. Martha chuckling as she took the task off his hands and appointed people for different positions such as cooks and the rest while interfacing with the core to see what they could get for cheap prices, Moyo had given her control over the core fully then to act in his place, he was not built for management. By night the people had been fed, Moyo pulling out all the creatures in his spatial rip much to the delight of the cooks who had started notifying him on meat running low among other things, a plan in place to start farms was on its way but until they knew the land well after the grace period, it would not be safe, till then the meats would have to do, Mrs. Martha had somehow found a way to get a well in the stronghold for drinking water, it wasn’t much, but it was better than the day before.

The meeting in the core room took every member of bastion, Moyo sat in the middle of the room along with the de facto ruling members of bastion, an important topic was about to be discussed. That night as the moon rose, he had explained all he knew about the archailect, his survival in the dungeon, jumping bits and pieces like his master, watching as the people too it in calmly, aware they needed all the info they could get concerning their new reality. When he was done Mrs. Martha also explained the system to them as she had gone deeper than the surface, revealing a whole new economy to it. Apparently, the coins were obviously a currency-based system, bronze coins being at the lowest and diamond coins being the archailect most expensive currency, and the fact that they had a thousand for a new planet had solidified their standing on earth as filthy rich.

When they had gotten to the issues of paths and core building, the people’s eyes had gleamed with the notation that they could buy paths in the warehouse, voices shouting out to Moyo that they should get them, Moyo had raised an arm up to silence them, standing up, staring at them all,

“In as much as what you all have said is true, in this new world we have found ourselves strength is power, but it is also a trap, a trap by the powers that rule the archailect. I tell you with good authority that should you pick just any path, odds are that path is tied to some faction or school that’s scheduled to arrive tomorrow, hence you would be tied down to them to finance your advancement” he started,

“And I promise you they are not the angels they will paint themselves to be when they arrive, most if not all of them are coming to exploit us, we’re nothing but slaves to them, but I intend to change that” he continued, glancing at all of them,

“How?” a voice asked from the people seated,

“By creating our own paths, based on things that define us” he said as murmurs broke out among them all, Idris stamping his foot to regain order,

Moyo stretched his hands out,

“I am a living testament, I should be dead by all circumstances, I was stuck in a level 50 dungeon as a fledgling, but I struggled tooth and clawed my way into creating my path” he said,

“So why can’t we follow your path” another an asked,

“because of certain circumstances you can’t, I bathed in lava, you all can’t survive it” he said chuckling as horrified looks passed over most of their faces, Annika included,

He took a knife, stabbing himself as the blade broke on his skin, the people staring in rapt attention,

“I’m not looking to build a school or a path that everyone would follow, no, what I want is the diversity that makes us human, we will make our own paths, each as different as each of us are, so when they eventually do arrive, they’d meet not slaves to their will but humans with paths suited to their paths” he finished as the people began murmuring, a steely determination in their eyes,

“I agree, but the issue is, they land tomorrow” a woman carrying a child said,

“Which is why we would work overnight to solve this, by morning we’d come to a conclusion” Mrs. Martha said as she stood nodding t Moyo,

“I say we give them this chance; they’ve led us this far after all” a man said standing up,

Everyone else shouted in agreement, hope in their eyes as things seemed to start looking up for them. After everyone had gone back to their cottages, sentries staying awake as they patrolled the overly large walls that protected them, Moyo called the whole team into the core building, sealing the doors behind him. Turning to them he opened his spatial rip and began bringing out all the boxes he had taken from the xerrans, numbering ten in all,

“I wondered if these were blown up too” Annika murmured, looking at Moyo,

“Nah, if my guess is right, then these boxes contain our very key to growing strong” Moyo said,

Opening the first one up, Moyos’ eyes widened in absolute shock, a total of fifty red rare cores with inscriptions on them sat in them, Mrs. Martha stared at them in fascination,

“If I’m correct, cores are either used to evolve skills or build a stronghold” she said,

“Indeed, but from what I know, you can only build a stronghold with cores native to the planet itself” Moyo replied,

Mrs. Martha excused herself as she went to the core and began scrolling through, searching for something, she found it and smiled, sending it to them all,

DOMAIN BUILDING:

Domains are the places built with the power of cores, it starts with a single stronghold, built by a dungeon core found on the planet only. However, to rank up the stronghold to a town, city, kingdom and eventually a domain, any dungeon cores of rare or higher quality are needed, the amount are as follows:

stronghold = 1 local rare dungeon core

Town = 10 rare dungeon cores

City = 30 rare dungeon cores

Kingdom = 100 rare dungeon cores

Domain = 1 legendary dungeon core or 200 rare dungeon cores

Moyo immediately placed 30 of the rare dungeon cores into upgrading the stronghold into a city, best to start spending the resources just in case, plus they still had 20 left. Immediately there was a loud gong sound,

Zone notice! Stronghold bastion has been upgraded into city of bastion by lord acolyte Moyo!

Notice! As the first on your planet to do so, you’ve been awarded:

1,000 diamond coins! 20,000 gold coins! 200,000 silver coins! 1,000,000 bronze coins! Access to path creation menu! 20% boost to your armies while in the vicinity of your town Building blueprints

Idris had to step outside the building to calm the people down as the giant crystalline walls changed to a dark color, expanding outwards to encompass the entire field, blending in seamlessly with the night. Informing the men on patrol to spread the news that a few upgrades were coming in as they shouted for joy. Sealing the door back Moyo went back into the menu, his eyes going straight for the path creation menu as they all settled down, the other boxes forgotten. Opening it he went through the info,

PATH CREATION MENU

There are thousands of paths in the archailect, some of them legendary tiers that are sung about in myths, some die out either to time or simply not being adequate to reach its full potential, take the risk!

Moyo scratched his head,

“Huh, that’s…vague?” Ayo said,

“Indeed, perhaps a test is in order?” Martha said,

Moyo agreed, Idris stepped out of the building and brought in a man who had a class as a warrior and was on guard duty, looking puzzled as he was led into the building,

“Hi, what’s your name?” Moyo said brightly,

“Evening sir, Josh’s my name, from California, somehow found myself in Africa or wherever this land is after the reboot, how may I help you?” Josh said,

“Josh, nice to meet you, we want you to be the first to test out the path creation program” Martha stepped in,

“it’ll be my honor ma’am” he said

“Great, now step closer and place your hand on the core” Moyo said as Josh did so,

Immediately a notice came up on Moyos’ Hud, he shared it with the rest,

Notice! A citizen is about to initiate a path creation, proceed? Y/N

“Well, here goes nothing” Moyo murmured and clicked accept, immediately Josh’s status screen appeared,

NAME: JOSH

PATH: N/A

BODY: N/A

CLASS: warrior

RACE: Human

LEVEL: 11

Immediately another notification came up,

Notice! The lord of the town can bestow a path on a citizen or let them decide to learn the path of the lord provided he owns a guild; guilds are created at kingdom stage in domain building. The individual is to pick a subclass that they want.

Notice! The tier of the paths could be increased by using rare dungeon cores!

Uncommon = 5 rare dungeon cores Rare = 10 rare dungeon cores Legendary = 20 rare dungeon cores Mythic = 5 legendary dungeon cores

Notice! The lord of the domain has the power to grant his sobriquet as an added benefit to the path chosen to increase its rarity, only 5 per level!, currently 10 entries available(+5 stronghold)

“Its like every premium thing in the system is based off dungeon cores” Annika growled,

Mrs. Martha nodded, turning to Moyo,

“in as much as I’d like to use the cores we have as a test, we have no idea of when we’d get more, perhaps we use your sobriquet?, whatever that meant” she said,

“Agreed, now Josh, what path would you like?” Moyo asked,

“I’d like to be a guard sir, plain, I know, but I’ve got a wife and kid here sir, was lucky enough to get transported with them, they need me” he said, blushing as he looked down,

“there’s no shame in that Josh” Moyo said,

“Guard it is” Martha said as they selected it,

Moyo used one of the slots for his sobriquet

Notice! Fledgling Josh has chosen path iron guard (c),

Notice! Lord Moyo has gifted sobriquet (titan) to the path of guard!

Path evolving……. evolution complete!

Notice! Fledgling Josh has been bestowed the path: Titans Sentinel! (r)

Body type: titans’ body!

Fledgling Josh has decided to follow the path of the titan as a wall to defend his home the domain of the titan, as such he has been bestowed the unyielding, unwavering physique of the titan!,

+50% mastery of all blade weapons, +5% resistance against poisons, +5% resistance against fire

“woah” Annika said,

“indeed” Mrs. Martha concurred,

Another notice appeared again,

Notice! A path has been created with the sobriquet of the lord Moyo, store as permanent path for use later? (1,000 gold coins)

Moyo accepted immediately, it was a rare path, one that would work well in protecting bastion, it was worth the cost,

Notice! Path: titans sentinel has been created and stored in the archailect archive, whenever an individual chooses the path, the lord of the bastion gets 100 gold coins as tax!

They all chuckled at that, glancing at Josh who began to glow, his body filling out more muscles filling his form, growing taller, by the end of the process he was a new person, a sort of confidence in his form. Producing his knife he twirled it about, eyes gleaming as the blade soundlessly cut through the air with a hum, remembering he was in the presence of people, he stopped, sheathing the blade back in one fluid movement, turning to Moyo,

“Thank you sir, I promise to protect bastion with my life” he said full gratitude in his voice,

“I’d expect nothing less, also you’re now the head of the guards for bastion, lead by example sir” Moyo said as Josh’s eyes widened, utterly stupefied as Idris led him out again,

Closing the doors back, Moyo stepped back and sat on a chair, the rest of the team surrounding him,

“This is a game changer” Mrs. Martha said,

“Indeed, we should- “Moyo said as a loud gong stopped him mid-way,

Planet Notice:

Citizens of C-102, the period of grace is over, the following are now in effect!

“shit” Moyo muttered as he glanced at the watch Mrs. Martha wore,

“Shit indeed” Annika replied,

The grace period was over……