Thalion appeared in front of the voice, slightly exhausted from all the engraving he had done. However, he was recovering quickly.
"Good day, voice of the system. Today, I need houses, a new outer wall, ..." Thalion greeted the system by listing everything he needed to buy. The list was long, but he had 3.2 million credits, so it should be more than enough.
After he bought all the supplies necessary for the people living in his base, he had over seven hundred thousand credits left. Over one hundred thousand credits went into his secret cellar. The rest was spent on a bud for a tree that possessed a very high affinity for darkness, and a blood crystal that significantly increased the power of any blood it touched.
At first, he had hoped to purchase more, but this would have to be enough for now. After all, he would receive more credits next week. There were also many tasks to accomplish: setting up his underground garden, which required a significant number of runes to direct energies; body-tempering with blood, soul, and darkness; and finally, dealing with the termites, which he needed to eliminate. Altogether, it was more than enough to keep him busy for a week.
Thalion felt satisfied as he arrived back in the tutorial after spending all his credits.
"So, where to start?" Thalion wondered aloud as he left the smithy and rose into the air. The new outer wall seemed the most logical starting point, he decided.
When Thalion bought everything he needed from the system shop, he hadn’t anticipated that placing everything would take the entire day. Then again, he had purchased quite a lot: houses, new training halls, the outer wall, towers, more shops, inns, and other structures. He even had to expand the base slightly outward using his main building crystal to create more space and widen the streets.
And then there was the fleet of skyships. Two were combat-ready, while over a hundred smaller vessels were solely designed for speed and agility. Despite buying so many, the system’s voice didn’t even offer him a discount. Luckily, the smaller ships were quite cheap.
His entire base now resembled a sprawling city, with a radius of easily over two kilometers. There was now enough space to accommodate at least one hundred thousand more people. Tomorrow, there would be another council meeting to evaluate the progress so far. Until then, he would work on setting up his underground garden. The mask project could wait, and he had even returned the crystal to the pillar to absorb more energy and become more of a fear crystal.
Next, Thalion placed the fist-sized red crystal into his blood container along with ten additional wind crystals. Thanks to Kaldrek’s recent trip to the mountains, they had more than enough wind crystals. Thalion hoped that over time, these crystals would absorb the blood affinity of the stronger red crystal. He also poured the accumulated blood from recent days into the container.
With all the blood currently inside, it could fill an entire lake. Thankfully, the spatial manipulation within the blood container was functioning properly; otherwise, he would have needed a much larger room.
He was finally alone in his tower. Over the past few days, a few families had been living here because they had run out of living space. It wasn’t a problem, though, as he had locked the room containing the blood and pillar, ensuring everything remained safe. The damage from the recent battle had been repaired thanks to the enchantments in the walls, which was an added benefit.
Anyway, he had successfully placed his cellar and was now descending the stairs that had opened up. It was much deeper than he had anticipated—at least a hundred meters. Before he had access to the system, climbing back up these stairs would have left him utterly exhausted.
The cellar he entered consisted of multiple halls, each with a ceiling over a hundred meters high, illuminated by blue light emanating from crystals embedded in the stone walls. It was far more space than he currently needed, but perhaps his requirements would change in the future.
He had eight giant halls in total, one of which was designated as a garden he had purchased from the system shop. The bud he placed in the center of the garden was called Shadeheart’s Blessing. He hoped it would begin to grow within the next few days.
To nurture the tree further, he placed multiple magic circles around it, designed to draw mana into the bud. Before leaving the garden, he scattered small hills of plants with high affinity nearby to serve as nourishment for the bud.
He wondered how quickly it would grow and when the first elementals might spawn. The engraving process had taken so long that he was almost late for the council meeting. Thankfully, there weren’t many pressing topics to address.
It seemed everything had gone smoothly with the new houses and walls. The new tokens made it significantly easier for the guards to catch murderers and other criminals. They had also implemented secure communication systems outside the city, which would hopefully prove more efficient than the maps they had relied on previously.
The most pressing matter arose when Maike asked, "when will we deal with the termites? They are growing faster by the day. It won’t be long before they reach us."
"Maike is right. We need to act quickly; we've spotted multiple beasts above level 70," Korven, another scout, added with a grim expression.
Thalion quickly calculated in his head. It would likely take one to two days for the armor and mask to be finished, another two days to devour all the plants as an umbral predator, and perhaps one additional day to feed all the blood to the sanguine throne.
"What about five days, give or take?" Thalion said slowly, still unsure how urgent the situation was.
"That could be risky. I think we should deal with the termites in four days, or the people on farming duty could be impacted," Maike added, her concern evident.
"Alright, four days it is," Thalion agreed. He couldn’t let the termites steal his precious resources, after all.
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The next pressing matter was when to teleport to the next stage. Some members proposed leaving in two weeks, while others preferred one month. Thalion, however, wanted to remain for at least two weeks, depending on how quickly his garden grew. He also doubted he’d have much time for body tempering after the war with the undead had began, especially given the unresolved situation with Kael and the others. Kael would definitely come for him, but for now, that was fine.
"I suggest we leave in one month at the earliest. We’ll need stronger fighters to face the undead and possibly even other humans," Thalion said after careful consideration.
A month should be sufficient for him to complete his body-tempering upgrades and other projects. Most council members agreed with him, and the meeting concluded shortly thereafter. They decided to send out the smaller ships for scouting while the larger vessels would head to the mountains to gather more crystals.
"Ah, Elise, could you bring me a few living plants with dark affinity in the next few days?" Thalion asked as they exited together.
"Of course. That shouldn’t be a problem," Elise replied, nodding with a smile.
Gathering more plants for his garden would, he hoped, help the tree grow faster. Now it was time for some crafting. His armor and mask awaited him. On the way, he retrieved the four crystals embedded in the pillar.
The moment of truth had arrived: had he messed up or created an item beyond legendary rarity? The materials he had used were immensely powerful, with versatile applications such as repair and mental attack capabilities. If the armor didn’t reach mythic rarity, it would certainly be among the pinnacle of legendary items.
It took Thalion several more hours to finish engraving the runes on his mask. Finally, it was time for the final process. Although it was the middle of the night, Lucan remained in the smithy, eager to see the result of Thalion’s work. Now, there wasn’t much left to do except place the crystals into the four interconnected items to complete the armor.
Thalion laid everything on the ground: the mask, coat, and metal armor. He inserted three black crystals into the armor first, which began to hum with power. Further inspection confirmed that the crystals were tightly integrated into the armor.
“Just one final piece,” Thalion thought, inserting the last crystal while immediately activating his mana barrier and jumping back.
Not a moment too soon—the armor released a powerful wave of energy that shattered his barrier and sent him tumbling several meters back.
"Haha! Looks like you’ve created something extraordinary," Lucan said with a loud laugh, watching Thalion sprawled on the ground before him.
You have forged an armor of rare power
Veil of Dread (Mythic)
"And what rarity is it?" Lucan asked with anticipation as Thalion slowly stood back up and walked toward the armor on the ground, which was still humming with power.
"It's a mythic armor," Thalion said, a big smile spreading across his face.
Thalion equipped the armor with a thought. "Veil of Dread" was an unusual name for armor, but he didn’t think much of it. Another unique feature was that no one else could use his armor. The runes on the mask, which protected him from the fear effect, were engraved with his blood. Technically, others could wear it, but they would be overwhelmed by the fear effect—a fate no one would willingly endure.
The armor didn’t resemble the heavy plate armor of medieval times. Instead, it looked more like a sleek, modern combat suit—something akin to an Iron Man suit, minus the advanced tech. Veil of Dread was also incredibly lightweight. Thalion hadn’t planned to test the fear-inducing runes immediately, but with Lucan watching him intently, he felt compelled to proceed.
The runes for enhanced toughness were already active. Thalion and Lucan spent the rest of the night testing the armor’s capabilities. Lucan wielded a massive hammer of legendary rarity, one he had crafted for a heavy warrior. It took every ounce of self-control for Thalion not to flinch as the giant weapon came crashing down on his arm.
With a loud clang, the hammer rebounded, leaving only a small dent in the armor. The impact was jarring, but Thalion reminded himself that without the armor, his arm would have been shattered. It didn’t take long for the armor to repair itself.
"Ha! Fourteen seconds—that’s outstanding for a self-repairing feature," Lucan said in astonishment, glancing at his watch.
"Now, let’s see the offensive skill you’ve been talking about," Lucan urged eagerly.
"Fine, but I’ll only use a fraction of its power—it’s supposed to be pretty intense," Thalion said, nodding as he slowly activated the runes of fear.
"Okay, okay, stop! That’s enough," Lucan said uneasily, beads of sweat forming on his face as Thalion reached approximately ten percent power.
"Wow, I didn’t think it would be this intense," Lucan admitted, now smiling. "Can you focus it on a single target?"
"No, it affects everything in my vicinity," Thalion explained. "But I think I can amplify its effect by flaring my aura even further."
Even Thalion hadn’t expected such potency from just ten percent power. Lucan had started to shiver slightly, his face drenched in sweat. Few would possess armor of such strength. Thalion glanced down at the crimson lines on the gloves, where the sanguine thorn would emerge.
The armor felt like a second skin, and he couldn’t help but be satisfied. Finishing the armor ahead of schedule gave him unexpected extra time for body-tempering. Smiling to himself, Thalion happily returned to his tower.
On the way, he gathered living plants with high dark affinity from Elise and planted them in his basement garden. He retrieved most of the alchemist-empowered plants with dark affinity from the storage crystal, piling them into a hill that filled an entire hall in the basement.
“Those alchemists had definitely level up from this,” Thalion thought with a smile as he surveyed the massive mound of plants.
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Finishing the armor earlier than expected turned out to be a blessing—it gave him more time for this task, which was taking far longer than anticipated. Namely, devouring all the plants as umbral predator. Once satisfied, Thalion collected a bunch of leaves and flowers, arranging them around the plants as fertilizer.
Next, he shifted back to his human form to train his fire skill and mana barrier. Would the body-tempering method be faster to digest the darkness faster? Yes, but he preferred a bit of physical training. His flamethrower now reached over forty meters and burned intensely hot. Even the stone walls began to melt after a minute of exposure.
Training with the first skill he had ever acquired was satisfying, but Thalion knew he had to return to body-tempering. Sitting down as an umbral predator, he began channeling the darkness he had absorbed into his flesh and bones, further strengthening his body.
Days passed quickly in a cycle of eating and meditation until a notification informed him it was time to leave. Thalion had only consumed half of the plants. He carefully placed the remaining ones into his spatial ring before leaving the cellar. They would travel to the termite hive aboard the fast scouting ships.
Initially, they had planned to use the teleportation rune Lucan was constructing, but it didn’t work reliably over long distances. It wasn’t an ideal solution, especially since the larger ships were still out gathering wind crystals, but it would suffice.
There was much to test. The others would use the small scout vessels, while Thalion planned to fly himself in his eagle form. Thalion stood atop his tower, watching as over thirty small ships rose into the sky. Each vessel carried at least ten strong fighters.
This might not be enough, he thought grimly. We may need to regroup and try again later.
The first ships unfurled their sails and shot into the distance at incredible speed. Thalion leapt into the air, transforming into his eagle form. Activating Feather Glide and Tempest Shroud, he soared after them with astonishing velocity. From above, Thalion took in the sight of his vast city. The tall towers, massive walls, countless homes, and the signal beacon casting blue light into the night sky filled him with pride.
“Not bad, not bad at all,” Thalion thought to himself as he flew after the ships.