From the air Rekzas and I, along with Dollaxea, his female lieutenant, sat upon my drake clone watchin’ as the Lord’s Manor slowly took shape on the cliffs surface, it was beginnin’ to look similar to the Romanesque entryway of the Whitehouse with a three-story portico juttin’ out. Balconies seemed to grow from the cliffside and connect all the portico columns on the second and third stories with ornate stone railings along their edges. More stone flowed out, formin’ doorways on each side of the porches with several windows between them. Some sort of clear material, likely crystal or glass, filled in the windows.

  Large quantities of excess stone flowed along the ground to where the glowin’ holograms for the Arena, Adventurers Guild Hall, Marketplace, Barracks and Auction House stood and slowly formed the structures from the ground up as if they were being 3D printed.

  I’d taken a moment after the conclusion of our spar to check the system store for town upgrade options. A wide assortment of things could be bought, on the lower end were small structures like individual houses startin’ at a 1000 Champion Points with the higher end being options such as town expansions rangin’ between 50k to 250k points. Above that was only one option, an option to expand the town into a city for a cool million. I’d be basically broke afterwards, but I could afford the lowest 50k C.P. town expansion option. Mentally selectin’ it, I read the listing’s description.

  [Tier 1 Basic Town Expansion Waiver.

  Item Cost: 50k Champion Points or 500k gold.

  Item Grade: Common. Consumable.

  Item Description: This consumable item allows you to double the border length of your town as well as providing additional housing, bathing and another feasting lodge. After finalizing the layout the system will build common grade housing and utility buildings using locally sourced materials.

  Border expansion: Equal to existing town border.

  Included structures: Fortified perimeter wall. Communal housing units (10x units, 100 citizen capacity for each unit). Communal feasting lodge 1x. Communal bathhouse 5x. Water will be supplied from local sources.

  Construction time: 12 hours. System construction generates a dense mana-field which may draw in beasts and monsters that feed on mana. Town must be defended during the building process.

  Ownership: The person who placed the original town will own the expanded town area and receive a 5% tax for all goods purchased or sold within its walls. Housing units can be rented or sold. Lots for shops and vendor stalls can also be rented or sold.]

  Rekzas pointed to the cliffside to the left of our town, “We will also live in cliff dwellings if you are willing to expand your town to accommodate us. Our stock of C.P. has recently been depleted. However, we do possess significant stores of gold which we can compensate you with.”

  I waved his offer away as a gesture of goodwill, “Not necessary. I have sufficient C.P. to cover it. I’ll begin the layout activation and you to make any changes you see fit before finalizin’ it.”

  Rekzas nodded. I activated the expansion waiver and lined it up into the cliffside just as Wallace and I had earlier, alignin’ the housin’ in a row within the cliff, two structures tall but only one row deep as the waiver only granted ten housin’ units. Should the orcs have need of further housin’ in the future they could always buy communal housin’ expansion waivers and add them on as long as I left permissions in place. Next I placed the communal feastin’ lodge, then the communal bathhouses.

  Rekzas observed my work and grunted, apparently satisfied. Turnin’ to Dollaxea, he asked, “What say you, Dollaxea?”

  The pale green female orc nodded, “Satisfactory, my lord.”

  “Excellent,” I said, before finalizin’ the layout.

  With my harpy clone givin’ me constant updates to my cluster’s situation, I felt safe returnin’ the two orcs to their people. We agreed to watch over the construction processes equally. Rekzas seemed eager for a challenge. I could feel that itch myself.

  Even at a run the orcs were a half an hour or so away from the construction zone, so I chose to offer the orcs transport in my P.D.S.. Openin’ it up, I showed Rekzas around inside. Once back outside, Rekzas grunted and gave the order for the orcs to enter and they did so without an ounce of hesitation. A mild pang of jealousy hit me, wishin’ the small group I was still escortin’ here with the troll clone had that level of trust in me. The need for sleep was weighin’ on me, my extra stats were allowin’ me to push through the lack of sleep, but it was catchin’ up.

  Rekzas hopped up on the drake clone with me, likely to ensure I wasn’t tryin’ to trap or kill his people through some sort of trickery, and we headed towards the construction zone.

  I’d been keepin’ track of Wallace, Wiesner and Sally’s locations which made it easy for me to mentally direct the drake clone in an spiralin’ descent towards Sally. Several people stood beside her as if guardin’ her. The group watched as the drake arrested its momentum with a few powerful flaps of its wings and settled in front of them, sendin’ light debris scatterin’ about. They eyed Rekzas with trepidation.

  “Sally, this is Rekzas,” I said, gesturin’ briefly at the massive orc. “Battle Chieftain of a large force that’s come to climb the tower. They’ll be our new neighbors. Y’all probably noticed us expandin’ the town border.”

  Sally seemed less concerned and approached as we dismounted, stickin’ her hand toward the orc in greetin’, “Pleased to meet you.”

  Rekzas hesitated a moment before takin’ her hand, his hand dwarfed hers and I could tell he shook it far more gently than he had mine. “Greetings.”

  “I’m goin’ to let his people out of my P.D.S. so we can defend the construction zones together.”

  Fifteen minutes later the orc forces had spread out mainly into the town expansion zone, and Rekzas sent some to shore up a few weak points along the border of the human side.

  Noticin’ my armadillo mini-boss clone had finished infusion, I summoned it and overcharged it with all the lifeforce I could spare without losin’ stats. My blood fairy was eager to test drive it. I allowed it, under the condition that she maintained a central position, ready to leap to action should any of our lines falter. Enterin’ the clone, which I was considerin’ namin’ Dilly, she curled the huge beast into a ball and sent it careenling in a random direction, soundin‘ like a house sized boulder tumblin’ down a mountainside. Intentionally or not, she chose a direction free of people. The beast let out a series of quick chuffs, the closest its respiratory system could get to a mad cackle I guessed.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Over the next few hours the construction continued. The periodic attacks seemed to be increasin’ in frequency. With occasional packs of various critters hittin’ us, even another aerial assault from a squadron of the harpy-like creatures. They went after my harpy clone first, but I steered it into a divebomb towards my location. The harpies followed and were blasted from the sky from all angles.

  I summoned the Wizard’s Staff of the Elements and aimed the staff at the closest enemy, channelin’ the maximum of 100 mana-per-second into the weapon, Elemental Roulette landed on Beam of Fire. A thigh-thick disintegration beam shot out of the tip of the staff cuttin’ through the harpy with ease. Maintainin’ the channelin’ kept Beam of Fire active and I cut swaths of the dumb flyers out of the sky just by swingin’ the staff side-to-side like a machine gun. The final scene in Scarface came to mind and a smile pulled at my lips. Say hello to my little friend!

  Cauterized body parts rained from the sky. I’d gather all that biomass later. Fertilizer for my growth towards Godhood.

  A herd of about thirty elk appeared at the closest edge of the forest, yet they did not attack. The Bull stood proudly at the front, with a huge rack of horns and standin’ twelve feet tall at the shoulder I figured. The females were a couple feet shorter, but thirty of them could do some serious damage to us if we weren’t careful. Luckily, after watchin’ the proceedings for a while their curiosity seemed sated and they wandered off.

  More and more critters showed up, most were hostile but not all. Ours wasn’t the only conflict occurrin’; out in the forests skirmishes could be heard between the beasts as natural enemies encountered one another as they approached or retreated. I kept an eye on them with my eyes in the sky. I had more clone slots to fill after all, I couldn’t let a powerful one evade my notice. A part of me wanted Hell Cock as a clone, but Rekzas sharin’ the rooster’s history made me feel a little something. Every man wanted a pet so loyal; a pet that would find your grave after death and lay there until it perished as well to be with you in the afterlife or some such. Was Rufas that loyal? Hard to tell, but he was my buddy and his joy brought me joy.

  Eight hours into the construction period a true threat revealed themselves, but the threat came from an unexpected direction. Miles and miles away, from the wide, umbrella-like branches of one of the god-like trees I spotted blue specs drift off, headin’ in our direction. Like a hornet’s nest had been struck with a rock, the blue specs increased in number until a swarm of, whatever they were, were headed toward us. The distance was too vast for even the harpy or drake’s vision to identify them. I decided to fly over, check in with Rekzas and see what he knew.

  “Syltheran Elves,” Rekzas said like it was a curse, turnin’ to scan the direction I’d pointed out, he continued. “They live in the Great Trees, or Arborealis Titans. The elves worship them like gods. If they are coming here they will come in force.”

  “What are the odds we’ll be fightin’ them?”

  “The odds are high. We’ve clashed many times in the past over various resources and the Ascension Towers are a rare and priceless resource.”

  “In case it comes down to a fight, mind sharin’ what you know of their fightin’ style? Or magical types?”

  Rekzas scratched his chin, “They are fast, prefer swords, spears and bows. As for magic, they are all Nature aligned. A rare few have secondary or even tertiary paths and that can be anything from Metal to Fire, or even rarer paths such as Life, Energy or Space affinities. I only brought a fraction of my tribe, those wishing to challenge the tower. I fear even with you and your people’s help we could be outmatched. It is impossible to get an accurate count at this distance, but I estimate their number is equal or superior to ours in number and many of your people have hardly advanced at all.”

  Sensin’ the Trojanus clone was fully regrown I controlled it and activated Harmonic Passage to bring it from our overnight encampment to my current position. As it neared a faint tremor ran through the ground. Rekzas drew his weapon, searchin’ our surroundings for danger.

  “I’m guessin’ the elves are similar in rank to your group? I can’t match that personally, but I do have a few aces up my sleeve. One isn’t here yet but you’ve seen the drake clone, I also have a Rank C Armadillo clone and Trojanus is on the way, a Gold Rank C Boss clone.”

  The harpy wasn’t worth mentionin’.

  Rekzas’s eyes bulged when I mentioned Trojanus. “You managed to kill Trojanus? That boss has plagued these lands for generations. Its rank does not convey its true might.”

  “I didn’t accomplish it on my own, but we did partially defeat it. Enough for me to gain a clone of it at least.”

  The rumblin’ grew in intensity as Trojanus neared and then emerged from the ground, exposin’ its full armored, girthy might. I mentally prodded the clone, causin’ it to rear up the front third of its length and unleash an ear piercin’ screech. I lowered the boss clone’s head a bit too fast and it struck’ the ground, craterin’ it and sendin’ violent tremors out under our feet.

  “That certainly tilts the odds in our favor a bit,” Rekzas said, suddenly grinnin’.

  The elves weren’t travelin’ that fast, or perhaps it just seemed that way due to the distance involved. In any case, our town construction was fully completed before their arrival. Through my Harpy clone’s eyes, I had watched its progress and was highly impressed with the final result. The roofs for structures needin’ such were roofed with massive shroom caps that levitated over from the forest. Even the largest of the caps were too small for the roofs, but midair they merged and morphed to form seamless, customized, polka-dotted protection that blended in with the surroundings.

  The Adventurers Guild Hall grew to three stories in height with a rectangular footprint similar to your average grocery store.

  The Barracks and Auction House were slightly smaller but were visually similar, from the outside at least.

  Off to the side of the Lord’s Manor, a large creek now flowed from somewhere above the cliff over the edge formin’ a waterfall with a pond dug out at the bottom, the system had lined the pond with smooth, seamless stone. It looked like it’d be nearly an acre in size when it filled.

  The Arena/Outdoor Theater had been dug down into the ground with many terraced rows of stone seating like a Roman amphitheater. It was open to the sky but I figured we could add sun screens or retractable roofin’ later on if necessary.

  The marketplace area was large and open with thick, smooth flagstone floorin’ where folks could sell their wares out in the open, in carts, or stalls could be built. The possibilities excited me.

  All excess stone, includin’ the random boulders strewn about the cliff’s base had flowed like mud to partially fill in the dry gully.

  I was eager to check out the interior of the Lord’s Manor but the elves were nearly here. I could make out greater detail now, the elves were flyin’ on blue gliders somehow travelin’ faster than traditional gliders could and without losin’ elevation. Magic gliders I reckon. Rekzas gathered all his people next to ours, formin’ a united front. I kept my blood clones out in the open. Hopefully we would appear a large enough threat to warrant a pre battle conversation rather than them attackin’ us immediately.

  Beads of sweat runnin’ down my body, I prepared myself for whatever lay ahead.