When creating a new empire, the most important step is finding a location fitting for it. If any historical empire was built in a wasteland, it wouldn't last a day. Food and water are the main two essentials, a river being near and the ground being suitable for growing crops are optimal.
Alstair was currently facing these problems, he and the rest of the humans in his camp were meant to start moving to the area that the scouts had discovered, apparently it was near a vast river. Alstair did not know if it could yield fruits yet, but due to the appearance of watermelons around the new camp he hadn't worried much, he will order people to begin farming immediately when they reach there.
"O' my people, gather up all that you deem valuable, we will be heading north until we spot a vast river!" Shared Alstair, his voice ringing amongst hundreds of people.
"Share this information with the rest, we will begin moving when this fire is put out," he motions at the fireplace at his feet.
The listeners began moving, sharing the commands of Alstair with those who weren't present.
"Abraha, Ivan, Mao, explain to me what you were saying before," inquired Alstair, his fist on his cheek while his elbow laid on his knee.
"Comrade, there are major groups that have headed into the forest, and other groups who headed towards the mountains. I suggest we head to take care of them, if they refuse to join our cause then we end them! They started traveling 3 days ago, they must have slept and camped every day meaning there are trails of fruits and dirt we can trace!" Mao expressed, his hand flying around with each syllable.
"Don't be an idiot!" Ivan roared. "We rush them and we lose, what if they had more ascended than us? You think we still have guns and warships? Ascended is the current military power, no one will attack another without knowing their victory is assured!" Ivan argued, he wasn't willing to risk his life just so Mao is holding a few more lives under his hand.
As the argument got more heated, a single figure stood up from his squatting position.
"Abraha, what are you doing?!" Asked Mao, his face deep red, his hands on Ivans collar.
"We don't know their numbers, so I'll go and see for myself," Abraha claimed while yawning, his arms above his head as he stretched. "If their numbers are above ours or at least at 100,000, I'll return back to report it," he explained, beginning to walk towards the forests.
"And what if they are less than 100,000?" Ivan interrogated, his brows furrowed. Knowing Abraha's personality, there was only one answer.
A sadistic smile infected Abraha's face as he twisted his head back to face the 3, "I'll kill them all, bringing back the head of their strongest!" He Laughed, the other 3's faces scrunched, they never liked the gruesome ways Abraha killed people. Alstair hated Abraha's ways, but he was essential, the people will round together due to the appearance of a strong figurehead but when a nation is well established, Abraha wouldn't be needed anymore.
Alstair stared at Abraha's back disgusted that his father had to tolerate this guy as well.
Abraha quickly dashed away, his speed astounding, even for people who have ascended.
—-
Two hours have passed and the fireplace had extinguished, the crowds of people began heading forward, their steps synchronized in a militaristic way.
Due to the grass of the spawn ground being unnaturally long, it lead to slower progress on traveling.
3 hours had passed and Alstair raised his hand with a clenched fist, the steps slowed before halting. "There is an Animal, someone will have to go and capture it," he spoke to the people closest to him, since Abraha wasn't around, the typical muscle work will have to be placed on the rest. An animal was a wonderful thing to see, either their production or they themselves could be eaten. Alstair wasn't stupid enough to try the meat himself, he will force feed the uncooked and cooked meat into another animals mouth and test it for 2 months.
"I'll go!" Volunteered a boy in his late teens, he was of medium height and strong features, he would have been admired for a handsome face in the old world.
"Sure-" before Alstair could accept, he got interrupted.
"Wait! Please let me go instead!" Roared a frail boy. he pushed through a couple people to make it in front of Alstair, he fell to his knees as he huffed and puffed.
"Please sir! Let me go!" Begged the boy.
"Why." Simple, authoritative and commanding.
"I am Marcus, I have always been mocked for my frail figure and lack of strength, so please sir, let me prove myself! I wish to walk the path of strength!" Tears were gathering under Marcus's eyes as he begged.
The first human has unlocked the abilities of the system
Alstair's eyes widened as murmurs began in the crowd behind him. "Marcus, go catch the animal," Alstair commanded, his eyes squinted as he observed marcus. He was curious if it Was Marcus who unlocked the ability of the system.
Marcus was stunned for a second looking down at the air, as if he was reading something, before a toothy smile appeared on his face, "Yes sir!" He got up, marching towards the animal.
Long curving horns that pointed forward and a stripped pattern across its entire body, the animal had 4 legs, the front two being half the size of the front two. Its face resembled a cow but its colours, purple and striped green, were astonishingly vibrant. Along its spine were spiked curved bones, It was the size of an elephant, it would be able to feed a decent amount of the humans that followed Alstair.
The animal wasn't alone, it traveled in a group of 6. Marcus slowly approached the large mammal, the animal turned its face towards Marcus before turning away continuing to eat the grass.
Marcus squatted down, being fully masked by the grass, causing confusion to be casted on the crowd of humans. Was he hiding to catch it off guard?
"BOOST!" Marcus roared. He shot up in the air reaching the animals head, punching the animals jaw, causing its eyes to roll back before collapsing.
The ground shook upon the landing, the humans were silent, in shock at what they witnessed. It was true that humans got stronger when ascended, but this was easily double that strength.
Marcus began falling out of the air, extending his hand to brace the fall but unfortunately he couldn't withstand the pressure applied from such a fall. An increase in strength wasn't an increase in endurance. A glass cannon.
*CRACK*
His elbow snapped under the immense pressure. Alstair rushed forward to Marcus, quickly picking him up and roaring back to the people "the night is approaching, set up camp here for now!"
—-
Marcus woke up, a sharp pain pulsating throughout his arm. "You should rest, you're lucky that the bone didn't shatter," spoke a woman with pitch black hair, her purple scrubs covering most of her body. "I'm Alya, the person responsible for your treatment, thanks to you, we were able to identify what was wrong with you!" She beamed, her pearly whites on full display.
"Huh? How did I help?" Marcus inquired, utterly baffled. He had no history of medical experience.
"The founder of the paths, Marcus Ambrose(1)," she stated, her eyes sparkling in awe. "Due to your words, we discovered the power of the system, your phrase of 'I wish to walk the path of strength' granted you abilities that will help you accomplish great strength. The system will assist you into becoming the strongest," she explained, practically jumping in place.
"Alstair then discovered that strength wasn't the only path, meaning that we as a camp have specialized individuals without the need for specialized equipment!" She raised her arms in excitement. Doctors now became walking hospitals, the need for a centre is only for extreme specialization or for hygienic purposes in surgeries.
"Wait so… I am destined to be the strongest?" Asked Marcus, his smile ever so growing.
"No." She shook her head, arms crossed. "You can be the strongest if you keep aiming to be. multiple people can walk the same path," she elaborated.
Marcus's expression saddened, he thought that he would finally matter and hold value to his country. If a more talented person picks his path, would he be worthless?
"Why did you call me Marcus Ambrose(1)? My last name isn't Ambrose," Marcus's confusion kept piling on.
"Sir Alstair made an announcement a couple hours ago, it was a few hours after you fell unconscious. Alstair said: those who wish to follow a path and want to dedicate themselves to his newly rising empire, are granted his last name as a show of camaraderie and unity. The number 1 indicates that we are the first generation of the empire, any others who come after us will be labeled 2 and then 3 and so on." Alya's admiration for Alstair was unmatched by any other, so whenever his name was mentioned she quickly began bouncing in place.
Marcus's eyes sparkled 'wow so I'm named after the king of our new empire?" He thought, smiling brightly.
"You mean emperor, right?" Alya laughed at his statement, clutching her sides.
"Yea yea, whatever," he rolled his eyes.
"Can you tell me what your path is? If you did pick one," He wondered, what other paths were there?
"I am Alya Ambrose(1), I used to be the previous personal doctor for Alstair back on earth, currently the head doctor for the new empire, I picked the path of a doctor!" She proclaimed proudly, her thumb at her chest. Now that Marcus was paying attention, she was cute, her abyssal hair reached her lower back, she had clear dimples and extremely long eyelashes severely complimenting her hazel eyes. She was the same height as him, so approximately in the mid 160cm.
The fact that a profession can be picked as a path gave so much more possibilities for a country, the path of blacksmiths or the path of a knight would hold immense power in the future.
—-
Alstair looked upon his people, he watched as groups held leashes dragging the cow looking animal, futile resistance was put up by the animal. he turned to another location and watched groups packing up the fruits and clothes. "We will head out, make sure to inform those out of ear shot!" He announced, he began thinking to himself 'they shouldn't let someone who is 11 recently turned 12 lead, due to Abraha, mao, and Ivan listening to me, the rest are as well but Abraha is only using me to play good cop bad cop with the people. If they dislike his harmful ways, they will listen to me, if they dislike my way, they listen to him, he will let me have control until a fully constructed country before preforming a coup. I need a plan to rid the world of Abraha before he picks a path, he should arrive back in a week or so.' What an unfortunate dilemma, Abraha is letting Alstair live until an empire is constructed and Alstair is wanting to kill Abraha before the empire is fully constructed. If Abraha is gone too early, Alstair loses control of the masses. If Alstair is gone too early, everyone will view this as a dictatorship and either leave or die to Abraha. A stable country needs both to coexist, for now.
As the camp began moving, Alstair pondered to himself, 'what path should I pick? Physical properties are out of the question, so are professions. I need a path with no limit, that works in most sectors of life. A path befitting an emperor seems to be a path of conversation or a path of leadership or…' Alstair's eyes widened for a second before looking at the sky and shouting "I wish to walk the path of control!"
The crowds of humans stopped, pausing to see how Alstair will change.
The path of control is an 'all encompassing path' are you sure you want to proceed
'What is an all encompassing path? The rest of my people didn't mention a warning from the system, that must mean it holds more risk, which also means more reward!' Alstair decided, tingles were bouncing through his spine, what a wonderful day.
"I wish to proceed," he muttered.
The first human has chosen an 'all encompassing path'
Title: -
Path: control( all encompassing)
Rank: 1
Attribute: Pratyahara
Status: healthy
Alstair began admiring his System message, he raised his hand and motioned for all to carry on moving forward. The trip shouldn't be delayed any longer.
Before anyone could take another step.
*BOOM
*BOOM
*BOOM
Everyone began frantically looking around, attempting to locate the noise. A cloud of dust was closing in on them from the location of the spawn area. 'Something moving at that speed through this grass was unprecedented, was it another animal?' Marcus thought, he let his hand raise to a fighting stance, 'whatever it was, they might need me!'
Alstair couldn't see the area behind the people, his senses limited to hearing for now, but the ever so increasing cloud of dust eventually was able to be seen by everyone in the new empire.
After a couple of seconds, all were waiting for the dust cloud to reach them, they realised they couldn't escape based on its speed it would reach them at any second. Most shivered and trembled, mumbling prayers to god to help them. They were lucky enough that the cloud didn't hear their prayers to god.
…
the cloud dispersed, randomly turning to nothingness.
As Alstair turned, faceing back to the direction they were meant to head in, he spotted something on the ground. A chill ran down his spine.
Grotesque and unrecognizable it laid there, in dark crimson and a deep handprint showing where it had been held, was the head of a human. The bottom lips were teared out leaving the teeth to be on permanent display, the eye's were missing out of the sockets, who ever was the killer, they were certainly sick. 5 clear fist indents were all across the crown of the head.
"This was their strongest," explained Abraha, his smile evident, his hand holding a clump of red, previously blonde, hair.
Abraha's hands had red gloves conjured from the blood of the camp he had recently killed.
"How many?" Alstair asked, his voice trembling, his hands and teeth were clenched with veins bulging on his neck.
"30,000," Abraha yawned.
Alstair closed his eyes, taking a couple deep breaths before looking down at head on the ground, "how many?" He inquired, now out of curiosity instead of solemn dread.
"7," this question made Abraha smile, before continuing, "at 4, he entered the path of strength." He explained, lifting his shirt showing a deep purple bruise where his liver is.
Alstair was quaking, his sweat was being produced significantly more now. his heart was in his stomach as he realised, Abraha defeated a person who had picked the path of strength.
How?
His strength was inhumane.
Which made sense, he wasn't human.
he was a monster.