Chapter 163

"Is what true?” Zac asked, not understanding the commotion in front of him.

Ogras only pointed up at a huge signboard that hovered above the entrance. It was over ten meters across, with rays of golden light cascading around it. There was even a painting of Brazla himself, invitingly beckoning for people to enter.

Welcome   to the Towers of Myriad Dao,

Home of   the Halls of Endless Skills

Holder of  the Eight Ancient Inheritances:

The   Invoker

The Umbra

The Titan

The  Fiend 

The Blade  Emperor

The   Celestial Artisan

Lord of  Cycles

Crown of Despair

“What the fuck?!” Zac couldn’t help screaming and quickly ran back into the repository.

“Back already human? Have you found the materials to beautify my surroundings so quickly?” Brazla asked as Zac stormed back into the hall with murder in his eyes.

“Why the hell have you put up the sign outside?” Zac asked, not bothering with pleasantries.

“To showcase the greatness of The Great Sage Brazla, of course?” the spiritual tool said, looking confused.

Zac lamented the fact that he didn’t have the capability to strangle ghosts, and instead took a few calming breaths to not explode in anger.

“You need to take it down, right now. If people find out I have a bunch of valuable inheritances here the whole town will be put in danger,” Zac said with as calm a voice he could muster.

“I refuse. If you can’t even protect my body it’s for the best you get defeated so The Great Brazla can find a more proper owner,” Brazla retorted without hesitation, completely unconcerned with the situation. “And don’t you try to cover my great form. I can make the sign as large as your whole town if I need to.”

Zac only blankly stared at the smiling spirit decked in an endless amount of wealth, and without another word left the hall again. Was the system messing with him, after all? First that change in the quest, and then it sends him an insane Tool Spirit? Was it truly retaliating for swearing at it?

The mob was still standing outside, and it even seemed that it had grown in the short while Zac was back inside. Zac could only inwardly groan as he looked over the people in front of him.

“As you can see Port Atwood has gained another boon, a proper repository. It contains 81 different Skill Crystals, a few of which are high graded,” Zac said with a loud voice, silencing the mob in front of him. “You all know how these types of crystals work. Their uses are limited. However, I will open the repository up to those who have fought and contributed to Port Atwood during the beast waves. I will need to formalize the rules, but the order of entering will be based on your Contribution ranking.”

Most of the demons looked extremely excited. Even though they were from an established force these kinds of opportunities were generally left to the elites or direct descendants. Normal soldiers would have to make do with the skills their classes gave them. But having an additional powerful skill could turn a battle around, or help them survive in a situation they’d otherwise perish in.

“What about the Inheritances?” a voice shouted.

“The inheritances are guarded by nigh-impossible challenges with almost no chance of survival. Not even I have taken one for myself. For now, no one will get one,” Zac said.

“Each Inheritance can only be awarded to one person at a time. It consists of multiple stages, and each stage has one-time rewards. If an inheritor perishes, the trial will open again. So to have the inheritance is also to have a target on your back, it is both a blessing and a curse,” Zac shouted.

That cooled the atmosphere quite a bit, and many even looked at each other suspiciously.  Zac decided to at least try to control the message since Brazla refused to take down the sign. He didn’t mention the heritages or the higher Ranked skills, and instead focused on the less explosive parts of the repository.

The Inheritances was what he really wanted to be kept quiet, but there was no chance of that happening with the sign. At least painting the inheritances as a huge risk might cool down the scheming a bit. The whole situation felt like a real pain in the ass to Zac, and he was happy he now had someone he could dump this kind of annoyance on.

“I guess it’s time to call a meeting. Gather the usual people,” Zac said to Ogras, who was uncharacteristically helpful as he simply nodded and disappeared into shadows after throwing a last glance at the gaudy towers of the repository.

That left Zac and Abby, who slowly moved toward the temporary town. Zac was happy to see the bustling activity with hundreds of people working together. He believed that it wouldn’t take long before the real town was in place.

“Hey, can a Tool Spirit go crazy?” Zac asked when he felt they’d moved far enough from the repository.

“Of course, they almost always do in the end,” Abby answered as matter of course.

“What do you mean?” Zac asked confused.

“Well, Tool Spirits are immortal, they live as long as the weapon stays whole. It doesn’t matter for unevolved spirits without a sense of self, but when they evolve into sentient beings the clock starts ticking,” Abby explained. 

“Imagine living an endless amount of time, stuck inside a weapon? Your creator is long gone, perhaps you’re forgotten under hundreds of meters of soil or in some hidden chamber, slowly counting the days? Anyone would go crazy.”

“They can hibernate, but the endless passage of time affects everyone. Spirits generally don’t go crazy while in someone’s employ though.”

Zac could only shake his head. He honestly couldn’t tell if Brazla had gone insane, or he just had an extremely annoying personality. For now, he would treat him as a lunatic just in case.

Soon Zac found himself in Adran’s tent, the meeting room filled with the usual members. Most of the spots were filled with the demons that had drafted the plan for Port Atwood, a new addition was Joanna, but she and Mr. Trang were still the only humans. There were some promising people who joined from New Washington, but it was to soon to have them present at this kind of meeting. 

Zac recapped the situation with the repository since not everyone was present at the new building earlier. This time he also mentioned the heritages, though he still didn’t mention the higher tiered skills.

The mention of the Celestial Artisan’s heritage caused quite a commotion, far more than the other one.

“Why are you so excited?” Zac asked the head of agriculture, who was almost jumping in his seat.

“Clan Azh’Rezak spent very little resources on non-combat ventures. The clan mainly gained its resources through hunting beasts and working as mercenaries. A real Heritage will be a huge boon to even us old people with craftsman classes,” he hastily said.

“I am sorry to put some breaks on the excitement, but before we can even discuss perusing heritages and skills we need to properly work out how things will work going forward. We have been scrapping along for now, but it is time to get structured,” Zac said, quickly cooling down the excited atmosphere.

“Most of us stayed behind on this baby world because things weren’t too good back home at the Clan,” Ogras suddenly spoke up, drawing attention. “But I don’t anyone here has planned what to do for the long term. What will we do? Where will we go? I can tell you right now that I have decided to stay here as part of Port Atwood.

“You know that Lord Zac is the strongest man on this planet, he is the first Lord to emerge, and is a clear candidate to become a World Ruler. We’re sitting right on top on a Nexus Vein, and as this baby world matures the density of energy on this island will far eclipse anything we ever knew back home.

Rather than venturing out into the multiverse like a homeless vagabond I will stay here and build my foundation. With the repository and other benefits we will seize in the future I believe we will be more powerful than Clan Azh’Rezak in less than a hundred years,” the demon continued.

A few of the demons thoughtfully nodded, whereas others took it as a matter of course that they would stay here.

“I am setting up a proper Structure now that I am a sanctioned Lord, and its organization will be largely based on the heterogenous forces amongst the demonkind. I will use a Contribution system, from what I understand you had something similar in your clan,” Zac followed up after nodding at Ogras.

“Port Atwood has accumulated great amounts of resources through the monster waves and our struggles, and we can’t just give it away. Only those who contribute in pushing Port Atwood forward will get a share. Since Adran can’t do all that work by himself I am buying a management office who will be in charge of the Contribution system”, Zac explained.

“I have my own pursuits, much like the other warriors, and will not have a hands-on approach in managing Port Atwood. Abby here is my assistant who will be in charge of making sure the town runs smoothly,” Zac continued.

From there the meeting turned into fine details of how the town would be managed. Initially five ministries would be created, with Zac as the sole leader. There would be no democracy and no councils. Ogras himself wouldn't have any official role, except as an advisor to Zac himself. 

The Ministry of War would not only be responsible of the defense of Port Atwood, but also the war effort against the incursions in the future. Ilvere was placed as the leader of that ministry, with Joanna as a second in command. Their first task would be to create a team that would head to Billyville in two weeks. 

Zac himself couldn't go, but it was no reason he couldn't send some warriors to gain some money and experience. An Incursion was always a good source of money for those who survived, and the Ratmen were weak but numerous from the sound of it, somewhat like the Zombie horde.

The Ministry of Revenue would be spearheaded by Zakarith, who was tasked to find some humans to help her. Their job would be to keep track of income and spending, and they would also handle Zac’s personal business ventures such as his income from the Consortia and the mine. 

It was also decided that Port Atwood would, for the time being at least, own all the land of the town, and as soon as the town was up and running start charging rent. Since he essentially owned the mountain he would also own the residences he planned to build on the mountain, designed to be residences for the elite.

The Ministry of Justice was in charge of keeping the law. For now there hadn’t really been any problems that couldn’t be handled internally, but as Port Atwood grew many issues would crop up. Ogras reccomended Alea, and Zac thought it sounded like a good idea. 

Perhaps people would stay on the straight and narrow, knowing the poison mistress would be in charge of punishments. Alea herself wasn't present at the meeting, so she was promoted in her absence. The poison mistress had avoided Zac since their misunderstanding during the third wave, even though he'd tried to find her to apologize. 

The Ministry of Works would manage any government projects, the foremost being the construction of the town. A future projects would be to do a proper inspection of the nearby islands in order to set upp supporting facilities on them, such as farms, husbandries, and mines. 

Finally a Ministry of State Affairs would be in charge of coordinating the various ministries and departments and communicate progression with Zac.

There currently weren’t clear candidates for all positions that needed to be filled, but Zac believed things like that would work itself out sooner or later. Real talents wouldn’t stay hidden forever. 

It was also decided that those who worked for Port Atwood would not be given a Salary in form of crystals but rather contribution points. Zac finally decided that there also wouldn't be a way to convert the points to Nexus Coins or Crystals for the time being, though that might change in the future. 

Finally when it came to the repository it was decided that the first 81 people, apart from Ogras and Zac, would get to use the repository once. After that it would cost Contribution points to use, and since the Crystal Charges were limited some sort of tests would also be tests performed, so that no precious slots would be used on wastrels.

Zac felt quite happy with the progress from the meeting, but just as he was about to call it a day Abby dropped a bomb on him.

“As Lord Zac has founded a Global City, and from the fact that we have been placed on an island, the sphere of influence that was given is quite large. There are currently 298 Islands inside your Kingdom, many of which are populated.

“I suggest we start building a network of F-Graded Teleportation arrays between your islands to integrate all your citizens.”

Zac was shocked by the size of his influence. They had scouted less than twenty islands so far, and already they’d found thousands of people. Just how many would be gathered over 300 of them? Besides, with such a huge area there was no way that there weren’t any drop-off points for cultivators. Perhaps he would be able to recruit some more promising people who could benefit from his new Blade Emperor heritage.

The meeting took hours, but finally everything was dealt with. This time Zac left alone, sending Abby away to start working on what they decided upon. She also was responsible to figuring out a good method to control who entered the repository. After pressing Illvere for a bit he was told of a gazebo some distance from the temporary town.

As he got closer to the small pavilion he stopped for a second as he saw the familiar form of Alea.  

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Author Note: First of 2 chapters today. Second in a few hours.