Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Territory Growth

Roland

One year after returning from the tutorial, things were going much better for Roland than before the apocalypse. Instead of being hunted across the continent, he was leading a force of tens of thousands of people with superpowers and his people were hunting down the last remaining of the five generals. Instead of fearing for the safety of his sister and awaiting the news of her forced marriage, he could now see her every day and watch as she grew into an amazing young woman. And, instead of always being alone or with old men, he had a girlfriend now, the last remaining heir to the fallen Galen House, and she was awesome.

Sure, to get all this he’d sold his soul to what he was now pretty sure was some kind of sex demon, but the couple times he’d met Guardian after he and his party were saved by the man were all rather pleasant experiences. Yes, the two times Guardian had come to his new capital people had attacked the man to try and get the promised Legendary grade rewards, which was annoying, and, yes, Guardian had telekinetically ripped their heads off their bodies for their troubles, utterly terrifying the populace both times, but the man himself seemed rather pleasant, asking questions through Shadow which made him seem more like an academic or crafter than the utterly terrifying force of nature he obviously was.

Also, he’d brought presents both times.

First was an F rank Rare grade Sword which was marked by the System as the ‘first work of the Heavenly Spark Soul King’ which replaced the G rank weapon he’d been using. It was perfectly designed for his own path, more than doubling his offensive power, and even its balance was good, confirming in Roland’s mind that Guardian had been a crafter before the integration. Second then were a series of array disks, slabs of metal with complicated runes carved in them.

He’d supplied the metal to Shadow himself for the purpose, and Guardian had apparently gotten too excited so he’d brought the results himself instead of waiting for her.

The array disks worked to help claim new Territory like the token provided by the System, but the effect was slower. It took a disk about 24 hours to claim a new area of around 17 square kilometers, the mana of about 80 mages required to start one up, and a running array attracted all the beasts in an area, meaning it had to be defended. Still, the five disks were absolutely amazing.

Upon receiving them, Roland had created five brigades of cultivators to use the disks to expand his Territory and, as Guardian made more disks, he’d made more brigades. The beast attraction side effect provided an excellent way to level up for himself and his more powerful warriors and, as his Territory expanded, more and more of his subjects were able to benefit from the effects of the Territory.

The boost in resource regeneration was amazing, and the extra Law affinity provided by Guardian being the overlord had greatly increased the strength of his subjects, but the biggest benefit was part of the intrinsic nature of a Territory. Beasts could feel that a Territory belonged to someone and, if they were instinctually afraid of that individual, they would generally avoid his Territory.

The beasts on Hira weren’t afraid of Roland. He and Shadow had performed some tests, creating a small Territory without Guardian as overlord, and only the weakest of beasts had avoided it. They were afraid of the Heavenly Spark Soul King, however, and, given the three times Roland had seen the man help defend one of the disks during the last half year, they were right to be.

The man’s main power was not telekinesis, but the ability to write runes into the air to

simulate skills. Empowered by Laws several grades higher than the highest grade Laws of anyone from Hira, one skill from him could destroy an entire beast horde, and his favored skill type seemed to be soul attacks. Watching several hundred beasts die from flames and ice was one thing, but watching them die from what Roland’s senses registered as just a light breeze was utterly terrifying.

Thankfully, no one but him and his party had seen the display, otherwise even scarier rumors about the man probably would have spread. 

While using the disks, Roland’s Territory had also expanded using the normal path, increasing the number of those recognizing him as lord while clearing out beasts and those who didn’t. He didn’t fully understand the process, but, from what Shadow explained, there was some sort of karmic effect at play. If those in his Territory recognized him as lord, part of the excess power they regenerated past their maximum would go into expanding his Territory, while the excess power of those who opposed him, both beasts and other humans, would cause his Territory to shrink.

The effects were small at first, his Territory only increasing by about 0.1 square kilometer every day back when Shadow left to go deal with the invasions, but it had increased by a lot since then, the passive growth of the Territory now greater than that provided by Guardian’s array disks. After the chaos that was the start of the integration, just bringing back law and order had won him most of the populace, but the bigger reason was probably Shadow.

He was pretty sure she was the source of most of the more favorable rumors about him, as well as a couple of the not so favorable rumors that still seemed to earn him support, such as that he had no idea what he was doing when it came to sex. Sure, that was true, but it had been so embarrassing when he’d overheard it from two of his citizens.

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“We’re going to head to the inheritance now, to get there when it opens.”

Roland jumped, reaching for the sword at his waist. Then he belatedly realized it was Shadow sitting on his bed and not an assassin sent to kill him.

His room was dark, him having just entered, and it was of modest size given his status, only around 60 square meters. It was decorated far too opulently for his tastes, much like the entire mansion he’d temporarily taken over as his headquarters, but it looked shabby next to Shadow, even if she was dressed in her battle clothes, a set of black leather pants and black leather shirt, and not the dresses she seemed to prefer.

“Why did you sneak into my room?” There wasn’t any anger in his voice. From interacting with the woman, he’d learned whenever she made an abnormal action there was always a purpose, and he thought she was likely making a point about how undefended he’d been.

“Your assumption is correct.” Having read his aura, she smiled at him and he involuntarily felt his heart speed up slightly. “I’m trying to make a point that you shouldn’t move around alone, even to your own bedroom.

“Given the rate things are moving, you should be ready to take on the position of Hira’s World Sovereign around the time we return and you need to stay alive at least until then.” Her smile stayed warm, but her tone was serious. “Please keep your bodyguards around at all times for the next 14 to 18 days, even when you need to use the bathroom or are interested in romance. Once whatever goes down at the inheritance site happens, members of the invasion forces who remain are likely to come after you.”

Roland thought about what she said for a few seconds, as he’d learned to do whenever given advice, and decided she was right. It would be inconvenient, and it wasn’t like his bodyguards would be that useful against someone like her, but they would help with surprise attacks. And he needed to stay alive if the peace Hira was starting to experience was to continue.

“Do you need any help at the inheritance? I know quite a few cultivators under me have gone there even though I advised against it.”

“No.” Shadow shook her head slightly. “A fragment of the Shadow Thief’s soul is thought to be controlling the inheritance and my guess is she won’t let anyone in without a requisite amount of talent. Only a few natives of Hira would meet that bar, probably less than a dozen, and no one you should be willing to risk. Numbers won’t be useful.”

“In the wider universe, we’re pretty much nothing, aren’t we.” Roland felt a bit down. He’d visited the north and some of the other areas where the native cultivators had all been killed by the invaders, and he fully understood Hira would have been rather easily conquered if it wasn’t for Guardian and Shadow.

“Yes.” Shadow was blunt with him, which usually meant she considered the answer to the question something he should remember. And it made sense to Roland. Knowing your place in a power hierarchy was very important for survival. “But don’t sell yourself too short. You gained your Law Egg of Rain without any type of inheritance, which means the path you are on is likely the right one for you.”

“I just shouldn’t compare myself against Guardian or you.” Roland smiled a bit sadly, but Shadow’s smile turned into a grin.

“Why not?” Shadow faded out of his senses and her voice started to come from all over the room. “Aim for the stars and you might hit the moon.”

Then she was gone and Roland took a second to think, his smile turning genuine.

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