Chapter 26: Monsters' Attack
Time left before monster attacks: 4 hr. 00 min
Now, Ash is practicing with his knife with high concentration because he can't go out of the city to explore outside of the city for resource gathering. He feels bored waiting for the monster attack, and sometimes, during the monsters' attack duration, he feels constant fearful thoughts in his mind, like: maybe this is the last moment of his life and maybe his companions will die a gruesome death at the mouths of monsters, or they all might die in the monster attack. So, he wanted to distract himself from these negative thoughts, which is why he is practicing with the knife.
At this moment, while Ash is practicing with the knife, he thinks deep in his mind "I has adapted to this new world of Eldros better than my previous world, Blue Planet, because in my subconscious mind, I always liked being free from any interference from the government and big people from Blue Planet. The mistakes of politicians and bureaucrats always made normal people like me suffer compared to them. They can get out of those mistakes easily, and nobody can really harm them without a doubt."
He feels in his mind that the world of Eldros is a paradise for the commoner class compared to Blue Planet because any mistake by the leader (altar owner) will surely impact his altar's growth. If the altar city becomes weaker, then monsters and beasts will destroy the altar, and in consequence, the altar owner will also die with the altar. But here, if commoners are lucky, they may survive compared to the altar owner.
A few minutes later, Ash feels hungry, and his stomach "growl-growl." He then decides that he and his followers need food to eat before the monster attack.
After a few seconds of consideration, Ash decides to order Robin, "Prepare food for all of us to eat," Ash feels. He also likes Robin's cooking. After all, Robin is a professional butler in a high-level altar city, and cooking was also part of the syllabus for the butler. Ash learned from Robin that he learned cooking from the head butler and master chef of his previous altar city's altar owner.
Ash was surprised by this revelation from Robin.
"Okay, my lord, I will go and prepare food for all of us," Robin said. After that, Robin went to the place where all the cooking items are gathered, and this place almost looked 80% like a kitchen when Ash saw it the previous day.
Again, Ash saw Robin starting to prepare the ingredients for cooking food. Ash seemed to think that "Robin likes cooking, so he felt maybe Robin liked Ash's order to prepare food for everyone. All the other people in the city are doing something, but Robin is idle, so new work may also delight Robin."
Ash continued practicing with the knife for almost 30 minutes. His fingers felt numb, and he saw the red color under his skin in his finger. He also felt tired from the practice in his mind. He then went to meet with Robin and saw that Robin had almost cooked food for everyone. His tongue watered at the sight of the food, and he seemed to feel that the food was tasty. So, he talked with Robin about the food, and Robin answered Ash's curiosity about cooking.
Again, "You prepare to serve the food, and I will go meet with Ram and bring him to eat," Ash said.
Robin agreed with Ash and said, "Okay, my lord."
Afterward, Ash went towards the city-garden direction. A few minutes later, Ash arrived at his destination. He felt that the mana density was higher here compared to other places in the city. He felt refreshed because of the good amount of mana density, and he felt something genuine, like the mana tree. Because of this reason, whenever he sees a mana tree, he always appears to get a genuine smile on his face. Then, he met with Ram. Ash said to Ram, "How are your injuries?"
Ash received a positive response from Ram, after which Ash tried to see Ram's status.
A new window popped up in front of Ash's eyes.
Name: Ram (altar subject)
Age: 55
Status: Normal
Abilities: None
Level: 3
Loyalty: 60
Weapon: Low grade sword
After seeing Ram's status, Ash felt happy, and there was genuine joy on his face. Ram could also see the joy on Ash's face. But Ash also had some concern in his heart about how Ram would behave or if he would try to undermine Ash's authority. However, he chose to ignore it in his mind because he had taken a bullet for this, and worrying more about the issue would be detrimental to his altar city. The loyalty in Ram's status window also gave him some assurance, and he felt that Ram's working style may not change much. Ash believed Ram would listen to his commands again, but he made sure in his heart to speak with Ram with the utmost respect.
Again, Ash tried to see the status of the city.
A new window popped up in front of Ash.
City: Nexus City
Ability: Territory defense doubled
Description: In the event of city defense, all the attack power and defense power of people and buildings become doubled.
Altar level: 0
Upgrade requirement: (Wood * 1000, Stone * 250, 50 * Mana Core (level 0))
Production: Mist Mana level 0 * 10 per day
Area: 625 square meters
Status: Very small village
Mana (money): 12
Tax (from market & city): 0 * Mana-mist level
Building: Guide Mark * 1 (active), Market (5 free trades per day)
Blueprint: Low-grade house (Stone * 100, Wood * 25)
Warehouse: Wood * 0, Rabbit Monster Hide level 0 * 11, Rabbit Monster Hide level 1 * 1, Stone * 10
Population: 4
Specialty: Mana Tree (Produces level 0 mana * 4 per day)
Resource point: Stone Mountain level 1 (310 * mined / 1000 all stone mineable in new mine)
Attack power level: 0 (1000/1000)
Description: City's power level to attack enemies
Defense power level: 0 (9500/10000)
Description: City's defense power level against enemies
Seeing the status window of Nexus City, Ash saw that the attack power of the city was at its maximum, and the defense power was also almost at its maximum. Ash felt ecstatic and surprised in his mind, and his smile grew even bigger. He thought all altar owners in this world would like to have their cities with max attack and defense power because no one can resist power in this dangerous world, where someone could die instantly without getting a chance to resist.
Ash also received some new information from the altar in his mind, telling him that the attack power of the city was not going to increase further in the status window because an altar upgrade is needed to calculate more power for the city. The same applies to the defense power of Nexus City.
A few minutes later, Ash said to Ram, "Good, your injury is almost healed. That will give us a lot more courage and help us defend the city." He also noticed Ram's face was smiling, and Ash felt happy because he had gained a real level 3 powerhouse for the city.
"Let's go and eat some food that Robin cooked for us," Ash said to Ram.
Ram agreed with Ash. After that, both Ash and Ram started to go toward the place where Robin cooked the food.
Three minutes later, they met with Robin, and Robin had almost prepared the food on the leaves for everyone. They took their leaf plates and started to eat their food. Ash could see their faces showing smiles, and they seemed to be in a good mood.
Fifteen minutes later, Ash and the others had almost finished their food when Ash received a pop-up message in front of his eyes and he read it:
Congratulation to the altar owner for the first subordinate under you to upgrade his level from level 0 to level 1.
Ash seemed surprised by the announcement of the system, but he felt good about it and Evan's upgrade from level 0 to level 1. He shared this news with Robin and Ram. He could see that they were also happy about it.
"Evan will need some time to adjust to his new level," Ram said.
Robin also agreed with Ram.
Ash seemed to agree with Ram, so he postponed the idea of meeting with Evan immediately.
"Robin, meet with Evan after a few hours and deliver a leaf-plate of food to him," Ash said with smile on his face.
"Okay, my lord," Robin said with respect in his voice.
A few hours later, Ash wanted to check the time left before the monster attack.
Then, a window popped up in front of Ash:
Time left before monster attacks: 0 hr. 01 min
Ash informed Robin and Ram of the time, so all of them took their weapons and prepared for the monster attack. But Robin had to take Evan's weapon because the city didn't have an extra weapon to give Robin.
Ash felt shame in his heart because, as a city-owner, he wasn't able to provide a simple weapon to his follower. But he couldn't do anything about it. After all, the truth was that he didn't have extra weapons to give to Robin, and his city was only 3 and a half days old. He hoped Robin could understand his problem.
Ash, Robin, and Ram were standing outside the city, where they had installed the pit traps.
Ash saw his status window.
Time left before monster attacks: 0 hr. 00 min. 50 sec
Time left before monster attacks: 0 hr. 00 min. 00 sec
From afar, Ash could feel a suppression in his heart and mind, a unique fear that he had never experienced before, as if a higher being was coming in front of a lower being. He could see that Ram looked surprised, and Robin was also fearful like him.
Afterward, Ash tried to see the status of the monsters that were attacking his city.