An hour of lecturing about how stupid and reckless he was later, Aki had to admit that this kind of guilt tripping was much worse than the eldritch whispers. While they knew about that however, he made sure to not mention how dire his position within the system even was. For all he knew it was only thanks to his citizenship that he had not been blown up and got to keep his system access.

To be fair he knew jack shit about what his citizenship did for him, as the primers about it were locked behind already having the aether construct that identified you as one, and he had no clue what it did either despite his best efforts at analysing it as he didn't exactly have a lot of study material to help him do much, so it could be that had nothing to do with his current case as this corruption could indeed be dealt with and was even helping him gain levels in some skills.

Both Lea and Set could tell he was hiding something, which made them more worried and irritated, but they weren't going to call him out on that in front of their captives no matter how little he cared about his image being questioned, the reason why they even nagged him in the first place being that he started apologizing despite the place and time.

"I guess I should speak to those waiting outside." He sighed when the silence started to stretch, both women nodding. The elves had been gathered and waiting for a while now.

Stepping back outside the stone igloo he'd made and up the small stage on the open field they'd previously used as an arena, he saw the bored, stressed and fearful gazes of the people below him. These were in part normal civilians with a normal white collar job and even maintenance people, but around a hundred guards also survived the escape, plus a few politicians, scientists and doctors who were in the same part of the facility on the other side.

If the ones going through other exits survived or were eaten before or after going through a rift in space was anyone’s guess, but these guys were his problem now.

“Alfar of the United Republic, I will keep this brief as I have already wasted your time due to personal matters. If possible, i’d like to simply be an ally to your government in these trying times, cooperated as rational people in the middle of a fucking apocalipse. The fact stands that i have been forced to down several crazed individuals even after having immobilized them completely due to their preference for mutual destruction over listening, and when the zones open i fully expect that there will be many with similar experiences and yet others who were completely subjugated. This leaves me with a decision that any leader would dread due to its repercussion. Any of you who do not submit under strict rules of a magical contract will be recognized as enemies of the Kratocracy and killed if you resist imprisonment.” He solemnly explained to the public’s horror, the citizenship contracts appearing in front of all of them. One did not even bother to read and started complaining.

"How can we even trust that…" He stopped the prime minister from speaking with his battle intent, her words stuck as she stopped completely, all present feeling the overwhelming pressure sending those with lower willpower to their knees.

"You don't. The contracts are magical and I can't break them by myself, but much like you have no reason to trust me, you should understand that I took down the monstrosity chasing you. I am currently your best chance at survival within the system as I control the dungeon exit, the town immediately outside and all the communities in the zone it resides. While most of you are seeing this as a threat, it is because you clearly don't understand the system yet, so allow me to clarify. If you get out of this dungeon without signing a contract with me I will be penalised with reduced rewards which had already been accumulated, but everyone else will receive a quest to help exterminate insurgents who refuse to fall in line, which they will likely try to do as people are afraid of God like entities, which the alfar of this zone had already been accused and proven guilty of consorting with such entity, nevermind any potential rewards for contribution. Worse? This will cause problems for the children I managed to spare from execution. I will say it again, don't trust me, just read the contract and tell me if you'd rather die, because that's your only other option."

They all signed the contract in the end. From then on it was only a matter of assigning the nine remaining spots for combatants and support personnel. The rest were assigned as camp employees instead, assigned to help with menial tasks, and given boosting accessories instead of restraints.

When hell began anew, the amount of complaints went up like a rocket despite the elves’ meager number in comparison. That didn’t last long however, as soon the new training of resisting powerful auras began as well, leaving every alfar sweating buckets as they felt completely inferior against any of the auras he could manifest.

The fact that he could even create more than one was actually impressive by anyone’s standards, but it wasn’t really something he alone could do as several more images used countering their enemies as something to structure their fighting style around.

Going forward a bit, the whole thing became a bit weird when the humans turned out to be the only species whose culture suggested that having more than one partner was strange, as was demonstrated by the fact that only the two asexual lab partners didn't turn up for horny jail.

There came another attempt at seducing the warden and several more attempts of hooking up between themselves, all resulting in additional resistance training.

When it became evident that the rule of not bothering people outside of organised events or over a certain a certain amount of times was quite serious and he a rigorous enforcer, the obrigatory turn up for said punishment did decrease, though not nearly as much as for the regular elites he'd been training.

Horny jail was, of course, not the actual course name, it was just that he'd ordered all those wasting too much time in debauchery to come take the Remedial resistance training class.

As the organizer of most such events herself, Septima wasn't actually taking said class as a punishment despite what most believed however. She'd actually been taking it as a challenge after figuring out the numbers his own restraints had.

With time the alfar ended adjusting to the camp, though there were some 'politics' involved in the finer details of certain laws which needed to be developed for their integration to the Kratocracy.

The reason behind such a smooth development was obviously not Aki and his scare tactics alone. Instead he had to thank the viper that was the former alfar prime minister.

At an outstandingly young age of two hundred and thirty she'd schemed her way into the public's heart, maneuvering through the political situation and surviving everything those trying to maintain the status quo threw at her, Maarta Cris Nova was a poster girl for all the projects that talked about a common citizen changing their life around through effort and talent.

That was, obviously enough, not the full story, but still there had been no reservation from Aki's part about getting her a high ranking administrative job. The fact that he’d done the old ‘make them sign it before reading’ trick was mostly because being a politician in his country ment a shit ton more restrictions that heavily punished corruption.

While she wasn't happy about said restrictions being imposed without her even knowing, that quickly brought her closer to Robert and the others with government positions, her capabilities and experience making her even more liked.

Everybody knew that she was scheming something, but they were honestly not that worried. It was one thing to be power hungry and another entirely different to be able to pass some stupid and egotistical policy under Aki's surveillance and the contract's influence.

............

Soon there were no more surprises. Training went on as intended and everyone kept leveling. Aki himself however, was forced to stop the growth of his battle capabilities. This decision was backed by two very glaring problems, namely a lack of inspiration with his magical capabilities and a very glaring lack of resources to train someone past his current levels, be it through challenges, training apparatuses or knowledge about related subjects, leading him to grind his crafting and other less developed skills, even picking up several new weapon skills.

By the tenth month, he’d figured out a kinetic enchantment and blueprint system for the creation of extensive railroads through the zone, wrote several additions to his law code due to learning new things on several historical, political and sociological areas of interest, started preparing public politics for the impending construction of new settlements on the wider world, intervention tactics for other powers, army formations and training regiments… At the very end of the month, he had even finished an auto-biography of his life until now, omitting only a few names and specifics of events through most recent history for obvious reasons.

Thanks to a few completed paths he hadn’t stagnated completely, but he had indeed been unable to significantly upgrade his image through proper meditation, and it wasn’t like there would suddenly be a new inspiration coming his way if he didn't finish some special path, though even those would only be fuel for him as he was not stupid enough to relly directly on such insights.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Goliath hunter path (2500/2500)! +100 free stat points. +2 free stat points per level. +20% skill growth. For every twenty levels a slain enemy has over you a two times multiplier is applied to the XP obtained.

Congratulations! You have completed the Perceptive path (250/250)! +10 to Perception. +1 to perception per level. All forms of detection are improved by a tenth of their capacity. A tenth of the perception score now also contributes to dealing with information overloads.

Congratulations! You have completed the Trapper path (40/40)! +1 to all stats. +1 free point per level. +10% experience gained. Skill acquisition is 10% easier.

You are an innate survivor, being the first to kill a monster at least ten levels higher than you with a trap.

Congratulations! You have completed the Pursuer path (50/50)! +2 to all stats. +2 free point per level. +10% experience gained. Skill acquisition is 10% easier. +10% skill growth.

You are an embodiment of your primeval ancestors, hunting enemies much stronger than you through sheer ingenuity. For being the first to hunt down a monster at least twenty five levels higher than you, your records will have a minimal boost in interacting with your planet’s own.

Congratulations! You have completed the Vital treant path (1000/1000)! +20 Perception. +15 Strength and Agility. +10% martial efficiency. Skills related to stamina receive 1.25 times more XP.

Congratulations! You have completed the Agile path (250/250)! +10 to Agility . +1 to agility per level. All forms of reflexes are improved by a tenth of their capacity. A tenth of the agility score now also contributes to the efficiency of nerves and synapses.]

He'd felt quite stupid for losing on those cheap boosts to his skill leveling, but at least he hadn't left them there for several years instead of only a few months, and it wasn't like he could tell what the most irregular paths offered without going out and exchanging his contribution points for Nexus credits to then buy a prohibitevely expensive missive on these times of path.

Considering the conversion rate was similar to that of some asian currencies to dollars, he'd probably already own the planet before being able actually buy said missive, something likely planned, meaning it'd be useless unless he wished to bet on there still being something unclaimed or decided to foster a newly integrated world.

As for the vital treant challenge… Well, he’d also aced it. Even faster than the lich one actually, as he’d quickly adapted to the pressure being thrown at him both because of his body and because of his magic allowing him to recover even faster to keep trying new things, which the trial didn’t seem to mind at all. There was no questionnaire in the end, but he did manage to plant the seed given to him at the heart of the grove with all the magical pressure emanating from it, which blossomed into an orb that shot for his forehead.

He had indeed used the concepts of endurance to keep going forward, of strength to use his whole body and vitality to cut through the sheer amount of energy while not exploding into some fleshy mass of cancerous growths however, so there was that.

Through all of this, his new neighbor Anmesatros, he’d learned was how the creature with more dimensions than him referred to itself, had actually grown to like him a bit. It might be because he had dared to nickname it Ames and form a small bond of friendship (some sort of soul contract it went all legace about) after finally parsing through what it was all about, which turned out to be nothing in specific, as that was apparently not how her kind worked.

They were kind of just there, doing whatever they wished to do when something interesting happened. In all technicality, nothing ever happened and also always happened as they seemed to exist through all time, their attention being the anchoring factor for how much they even experienced the moments in question, though that was still rather incomprehensible as Ames itself seemed to be experiencing at least a dozen more points in time besides his own.

Really, the cosmic monstrosity seemed a lot more like a cat rather than some god. And she also really liked head scritches. Thanks to their soul connection however, he was able to put the part of her coming to him to rest/sleep, so the problem of having to keep petting the floating head of a three eyed purple cat even when he couldn’t was not actually a problem at all.

Doing the same to the whole being would be impossible unless she herself told him to and his mental capabilities expanded over tenfold however, so even as he teached her love and patience, it wasn’t like he’d be able to get out of the system’s sight so soon.

The other side effect of this solution was that he was indeed bonding heavily with the big shitstain. He didn’t even mean that as an insult, he truly loved the four dimensional mass of tentacles and eyes like family. While he wasn’t turning into a crazy cultist through this, he was indeed much more likely to side with her than the system even if it ended in war.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t pick up his loved ones and run now, so saying that was caused by the bond instead of his own feelings would be quite the alarmist statement, and the same people he mentioned also agreed with that, though Lea was baffled at the thought of running from the system as she had barely even thought about reality outside of it. Septima fully supported the back up plan however.

Speaking of leaving one realm for another however, it was high time to leave the dungeon. The morale was plummeting no matter what he did, specially his own, so when he suggested ending the training earlier he was met with such cheer that he just shrugged and decided to throw a party with most of their consumable provisions.

That had been yesterday, so now he was overseeing the groupings to leave the dungeon. While they could all just cross the portal together through some fiddling with the dungeon interface from his part, doing so would be quite stupid as they now had a few times more people in their group and simply no way of knowing what would be translocated to allow for the expulsion all those present.

First were a small group of elites who he gave fifteen seconds to clear the area outside of people, something the commanders should have no problem executing, though he himself would have to wait the full fifteen hours it'd take to get the three groups out while inside the dungeon so as to make sure everything went correctly. So much for pushing the time dilation to max.

"Let's hope whatever bullshit powerup i get doesn't hurt too much." He sighed as he saw the people he'd trained into proper soldiers go through the exit.