Chapter 148

Zac’s headache was only growing as he walked the movie star to one of the empty courtyards on his compound. He had been forced to let Emma stay here until the promised mansion was built, and he already was that the construction would be fast-tracked. 

Ogras had wanted to accompany them, but Alea arrived which seemed to make him change his mind. The poison mistress didn’t have her usual playfulness, and she simply left after she had thrown a glare at the movie star, which was returned in kind. For now only Emily was accompanying them.

“So you really are the Super Brother-Man? Jules told me she suspected that you were him, and the demon confirmed it. Why do you have that stupid nick-name? Sounds like the alias of someone trying to lure kids into their van,” Emma said, obviously not caring to choose her words more carefully after learning who Zac was. 

Zac only sighed and shook his head. It seemed that him being the top ranker couldn’t subdue the mouth of the renowned movie star completely. Still, it was thanks to her that he still could attain the first Lord-title and benefits, so he chose to simply endure it for now. 

At least she would be someone else’s problem soon enough, as she’d be barred from his compound the moment she got her mansion built. And if she kept making a racket or cause problems in Port Atwood he wasn’t above throwing her in jail, even if he had to build one just for her. There were limits to his patience.

“You can stay here for now,” Zac said after they arrived at a small but exquisite courtyard that just so happened to be on the opposite side of the compound from where Zac usually meditated. “It might be a week or two before we can construct your permanent home, as our force is a bit occupied with a few things right now.”

“Well, it’s passable I suppose,” Emma said as she walked around.

Zac nodded and turned to leave, but a shout stopped him.

“Wait. What about me?” Emma said with a glare.

“What about you?” Zac asked.

“Will you just leave me here? What am I supposed to do? You’re the worst host ever,” Emma said with a huff.

“Emily can take you to Port Atwood. Julia should be there somewhere also. You’re also free to stay with Ogras in his palace,” Zac said, hoping she would take him up on his offer. 

“Why in god’s name would I live with that bastard? Cutie, take me to Julia please,” she said and hooked her arm in Emily’s, to her visible excitement.

Finally the two left together, leaving Zac alone with his thoughts. He opened his quest screen, and took a look at his quest. 

Incursion Master (Unique): Close or conquer incursion and protect town from denizens of other alignments for 3 months. Reward: 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, town upgraded to City, status upgraded to Lord. (1/3) [02:15:23:14]

Less than three days remained until the third and final wave. He went over his things and felt as prepared as he could be. He already had two of the Lightning Punishment arrays that he bought for the ant waves, and an ample amount of crystals he got form Rydel’s Cosmos Sack and the mining operations.

He also had the high quality siege machines from the sack, which even low leveled people could utilize. They might not gain energy from the kills, but at least they would contribute to the war efforts. Depending on the nature of the waves he would either have the Valkyries use the siege engines or gain experience from fighting by hand. He honestly did not know what else there was to do before the wave hit, apart from preparing the general population. 

After resting a bit he went to the town to meet up with Adran, who usually was up do date with everything happening.

“Greetings, Lord Zac,” the demon said as Zac entered his office, which was still the large tent. He still hadn’t bothered with having a proper structure built, as it would be moved shortly in any case. 

“How did it go with the new town-people?” Zac asked after greeting the administrator.

“Hehe, I do not know what you told them to get them to come here, but some were… Less than pleased with the current state of Port Atwood. Though it got better when we demonstrated building a house in an hour, and explained we would begin construction of the town proper within two weeks,” the demon said.

Zac only grimaced while nodding. He wasn’t too surprised with their reactions after Mr. Trang’s shameless recruitment tactics.

“There are also the two beastkin who have kept pestering us to take them to the island with the town of their kind,” he added.

“Where are they now?” Zac asked.

The incident with Ogras had made him completely forget about the two.

“They are waiting in the tavern,” the demon answered.

“We have a tavern?” Zac asked surprised.

“Yes, one of the more enterprising humans opened one up while you were gone. Another human also informed us of his island having a pretty huge cache of liquor. We made an extra excursion there to procure it, I hope you don’t mind,” the demon grinned. 

“That’s fine, it’s good that some civilian businesses are cropping up, please help out cases like that in the future as well,” Zac said with a nod. “How are the war preparations?”

“Everything we can think of has been done. We have massively improved on the traps and pitfalls outside the walls, reinforced the walls themselves, and added the siege machines,” the administrator said.

“We have also trained some of the more competent civilians to help out with logistical efforts and basic triage. The only thing remaining is whether you wish to buy any more arrays or tools to prepare.”

Zac mulled it over. Between his combination Town Protection array and his lightning punishments he felt secure enough to tackle the third wave. He was sure it would be a nasty one, but still there were limits to how far the system could crank up the difficulty. With his own and the demon’s power, and the various advantages he had accumulated he felt confident in taking on almost anything the System could throw at him.

“We have everything we need saved from the Ant Horde,” Zac said and the demon nodded in agreement.

“Oh, we have also started making some inroads in making the carriages you brought back some time ago run on Nexus Crystals. For now we can simply create fire from the energy in the combustion chambers of the contraption, but in the future we might be able to even make it run on pure energy instead of wasting so much of it through converting it to heat,” the demon added.

Zac was delighted at the news. That kind of refitting would be quite profitable he believed, but also it would help with mobility for a lot of people. Not every town could own an expensive Teleportation array, and would have to actually travel between towns 

“Great, keep me posted. I am planning on visiting the Beastman village before the wave hits. Perhaps we can get some more warriors. From my impression of these Ishiate they might also be skilled craftsmen, which would help immensely in refining all our materials into sellable equipment.” 

With that he left the command tent to head over to the tavern. He saw the two Ishiate sitting in a corner looking somewhat troubled, but when Zac told them he was taking them to their hometown they were visibly excited.

But before they could leave he started as he saw who stood behind the counter. 

“It’s you?” Zac asked with some surprise.

“Well, a man’s got to do something,” Ryan answered with a grin. “When I said I wanted to open a saloon the demons were more than willing to help with the construction. I’ve never seen a house get erected that fast. Unfortunately I can’t really charge the demons for liquor since they brought it, but at least I can charge the others.” 

“I’m glad you found your calling,” Zac answered with a small smile.

“Yeah, you know I sometimes dreamed of moving to some tropical country and opening a beach bar back when I worked a dead-end job. Who knew that the apocalypse would turn it into reality?” Ryan answered with a widening smile.

Zac wouldn’t have minded staying a bit, but the anxious Ishiate made him remember his tasks.

“I will talk to you later,” Zac said as he left with the two beastman in tow.

Zac also brought the fisherman one of the demons who was on the scouting mission and immediately set sail. The island was over six hours away, and he didn’t want to waste any time. Soon they were cutting through the waves in breakneck speed as Zac once again sat in the fore contemplating the Dao.

The two Ishiate were extremely intrigued about the vessel they used. They likely had studied human technology quite a bit since the integration, but this vessel was something else entirely. They kept excitedly talking about the construction and tried to hypothesize how it worked as they furiously scribbled notes in notepads. It was as though the vessel had opened up a new avenue to them.

Zac was happy to see their excitement, as he had hopes that he would be able to relocate at least part of the beastkin back to his town, in order to gain some craftsmen. The humans he brought from New Washington was a good start, but Earth had very few proper craftsmen before the fall. Zac suspected that things like blacksmiths, tinkerers and even alchemists where more common concepts among the ishiate, who was essentially a medieval society hungering for technological advancements.

Finally as the suns started to set they arrived at their destination, a decently sized island that was slightly larger than the ones he’d visited so far. The climate was the same as on his island, but the forests looked quite different. They were far more colorful, with many trees having red leaves instead of green, and many trunks were blue-ish. 

The town they were visiting wasn’t originally a sea-side town, so it was some ways inland, and they started travelling through the beautiful forests. A weird small critter with three eyes and six legs suddenly skittled in front of them, startling Zac.

“It’s a Prikka,” one of the Ishiate explained, “I haven’t seen one since the fall. This whole forest feels like home, though it has grown quite a bit from what’s normal.” 

Finally after an uneventful trek of five minutes they arrived at the walled city, and Zac looked at it with some interest. It’s architecture looked quite different from anything he’d seen so far.

The wall was made of some metal, and on top of it there were huge brass cannons mounted. Both the cannons and the walls looked somewhat new, even though their states weren’t great. Zac assumed they had been erected or improved in order to combat the monsters of the island. That would also explain the craters on the ground around the wall, and the fire-licked trees at the clearing. 

“We’re home,” the Ishiate said with ripe emotion in her voice.

As they approached the town Zac kept looking over the area. It was clear that the town hadn’t been unscathed over the past months. There were clear signs of battle all around the town, and the metal plating was dented or even missing in various spots. It gave a battle-torn image, though Zac noted that the town still stood, as no parts of the wall were completely ruined, and there were figures patrolling its wall walk.

The group made no effort to hide, and openly walked toward the main gate. Their approach was quickly noted, and the guards shouted down at someone below. Soon they arrived at the gate, who still was closed.

“Hello? I’m Shea Moon of Cogstown, daughter of Basso Moon. With me are my husband Porro Moon and some human friends who helped us come home,” she shouted up at the the wall.

There was no response for a minute, and Zac started to frown.

“What now?” Zac asked at the Ishiate, who also looked a bit confused.

“Wait a bit longer. The guards might be getting reporting to those in charge,” Shea answered hesitantly.

She was quickly proven right as after another minute a roar could be heard over the wall.

“Open the god damn gate, you idiots!” a deep voice resonated, almost immediately followed by the gates slowly opening with a creak.

Zac and the others didn’t have time to enter before a giant Ishiate rushed at them.