It had been two weeks since the punishment force was created.
Ashley and Samantha had managed to come to an agreement regarding the design of the village, and had both agreed to go all out on making it look outrageous.
Ashley wanted anyone who entered to be scared shitless, as if they had entered the lair of a demon. Samantha wanted to fill the visitors with shock and awe at the intricate carving and artistic work done by those who designed and built the village.
They decided to go with a completely horrific and haunted theme- fulfilling the wishes of both.
For the past two weeks, everyone had been hard at work.
Garett had been able to design and coordinate the construction of a quarry, and they began extracting marble, stone, and even metal ore as a result of that.
At this point, his handiwork had reached level 10- which unlocked a very interesting ability.
The ability to modify a material specimen in order to appear and exhibit properties as if it were a completely different material. Through this, he could work with a material while it was in an easily workable state, and then change the properties to fit whatever uses were neccesary.
He had agreed with the theme of terror for the village, and readily made the creepiest possible objects. Bricks with eyeballs which worked as cameras, various statues and the sort, and most importantly..
He was able to take pieces of wood and bricks and make them appear as flesh or body parts.
It was like an amusement park- a demented and terrifying one at that. After weeks of work, not only had the goblins and the antiheroes managed to build many disturbingly artistic buildings- but they also managed to upgrade the existing ones.
Garett had also been able to utilize indoor plumbing and electricity, and implement this into the village. The goblins and slime people were completely amazed when he did this, and showed them how to use it.
"As expected of your excellency. Your knowledge of how the world works is clearly on a different level than us."
"Amazing... to be able to store energy in these tiny metal capsules!", one exclaimed as Garett showed them what a battery was.
The centralized power plant and waterworks facility lay below the meeting room where the antiheroes typically took their seats as the dictators of the village.
The heart of the city was the place where power was produced and water was distributed from, and the brain of the city was where the leaders resided- usually. Of course, this was not the actual home of the antiheroes, it was more like their own little government office where they held meetings and gave orders to the villagers from.
The antiheroes actually lived in a small fleshy home that was next to the giant facility. They were of course, bound to each other, so there was no need for a large home.
They had all grown accustomed to life as rulers of the village, and the progress was amazing. Coran and Arlo had worked together to become stronger as warriors, along with the other members of the punishment force. Not only this, but they eventually began training for all the other members of the village.
While it could be problematic for a typical ruler if their citizens grew too powerful, that was not the case for the antiheroes due to Ashley's overwhelming power and Samantha's dominating mind control.
All the goblins and the slime-people's base stats had at least doubled from the time that the antiheroes had first seen them- if not more. Some people had even tripled or quadrupled in strength, Coran and Berith being prime examples, even before taking any extra buffs into account.
The two spiderlings were now just as strong- if not stronger than Arlo on a base level. Not only this, but something else had happened which made them much more powerful than before.
As for Berith, she had been training herself in secret, while Coran underwent official training under Arlo, and eventually under Trevor as a bowman.
Garett had also been able to improve his blacksmithing skills to level 7 after first extracting metal from the quarry, and then using his own skills to process it. There had been numerous failures at first, however now that his skill was so high he rarely ever failed and was even able to create the intricate designs that laid the village, and mass produce some weapons.
Not only this, but Garett had finally figured out how to use the enchanting skill just recently. He had not been able to produce anything on a massive scale, however he was able to use the concentrated liquid mana which was obtained from Ashley in order to infuse magical energy into object, giving them randomized buffs and such.
Of course, this intrigued Garett. It was almost like a lottery, where you didn't know what you were going to get.
The potion industry was booming, and Iotar along with a couple of apprentices had some breakthroughs in the production of the potions. They were able to artificially produce slime gel from melting down of certain bio-altered metals and mixing them with some of the concentrated liquid mana obtained from Ashley- which was in basically unlimited supply.
Due to this, Berith had also been able to produce enough of the steel thread armor for the entire village, and she was getting better at producing higher quality material the more she worked. Even attacks from Garett would leave only a scratch on these armors- not that he would ever let his subjects know that. They seemed to believe that each and every one of the antiheroes were overwhelmingly powerful, and he would like to keep it this way.
Speaking of which, the group had leveled up significantly in the two weeks time.
They were currently at level 20. Their stats looked like this:
[Player Garett]
[Strength: 89](+4 Fanged Club)
[Dexterity: 2]
[Perception: 40]
[Charisma: 20]
[Intelligence: 68]
[HP 630/630 MP 250/250]
[Alchemy: Level 4]
[Enchanting: Level 1]
[Smithing: Level 7]
[Handiwork: Level 10(Max)]- Master Craftsman- You are able to craft any item, from any material, and change the properties of the material to either appear as another material and/or have properties similar to another.
Garett had not maximized any of his skills yet, and his dexterity had actually decreased over the past few levels, however he was able to maximize his ability as a handyman and create the entire scenery around them which Ashley and Samantha had worked hard on designing.
[Player Trevor]
[Strength: 85]
[Dexterity: MAX]- Maximizing Trait: [Speed of light]- Allows you to move and perform actions at the theoretical maximum speed. Fast travel for party unlocked to any previously visited locations.
[Perception: MAX] Maximizing Trait: [All knowing]- You are aware of every object in the vicinity, their trajectory, physical and chemical properties, and any other factors which may influence the future events associated with the object. This allows for you to predict the future, and make better decisions based on the circumstances.
[Charisma: MAX]- Maximizing Trait: [Magnificent leader]- Active skill. When this skill is activated on a trusted subordinate, their fighting strength will be reassigned between 1st tier and 9th tier, depending upon their loyalty to their master. A subordinate who has completely submitted every thread of their being will become a 9th tier monstrocity. For more information on tiers, go to [Help]
[Intelligence: MAX]- Maximizing Trait: [Database]- You have unlocked the ability to store information inside a database, with no limitations.
[HP 310/310 MP 300,000/300,000]
Trevor had maximized many statistics at this point, and was beyond overpowered, both in terms of information, negotiation, and physical strength and speed. What would happen when he reached the maximum for all skills? Would there even be a purpose in leveling up?
Trevor went to the [Help] section to find out more on the "tiers" that were mentioned, to learn that in this world, monsters and people were classified by their strength according to these tiers. While it was a basic estimate, it showed the relative strength of different beings to each other.
The system was exponential. For each tier higher, a warrior would be exactly 5 times stronger than someone 1 tier below them. For example, if someone was at the lowest end of the 2nd tier, and another person was at the lowest end of the 3rd tier, this would imply that the 2nd person is exactly 5 times as strong as the first person.
The average child would be at the lowest end of the first tier, and the average adult would be somewhere around the lowest end of the 2nd tier. An average human warrior would be around the lowest end of the 3rd tier, and the strongest warriors would sometimes break the 4th tier.
Essentially, if someone of the 1st tier were to take on someone of the 3rd tier in a fight, it would take around 25 people for the fight to be even.
While this was not set in stone, as certain tactics and skills existed which had advantages over others, it was a rough estimate.
It would be almost impossible for anyone to beat an opponent which was an entire tier higher than them.
However, theoretically it would be possible for someone of the high 2nd tier to beat someone of the low 3rd tier.
[Player Samantha]
[Strength: 5]
[Dexterity: 2]
[Perception: 48]
[Charisma: MAX]
[Intelligence: MAX] Maximizing Trait: [Mind reading]- You know what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is a person or a monster.
[HP 110/110 MP 300,000/300,000]
The strength and dexterity statistics had begun to go down for Samantha, however she was not worried about this in the least. She was exhilarated on being able to read the minds of others, and especially so while living in this new village. Whenever she and her comrades passed her subjects, she would hear their thoughts of awe and praise towards them. She was not able to read the minds of her comrades, however that was acceptable, as she trusted each of them- to an extent. As a matter of fact, she was happy to not be able to read their minds. That would have made things... awkward to say the least. The others had initially caused a scene at seeing this ability before finding out that it didn't apply to them.
[Player Ashley]
[Strength: 50](+5 Against Defenseless)
[Dexterity: 75]
[Perception: 49]
[Charisma: -89]
[Intelligence: MAX]
Ashley's statistics had increased overall for the most part, and she had continued practicing using different spell compositions and techniques. She was a master of manipulating both her magical aura and her fire spells, and was able to do as she pleased. Her Charisma, however... was at an all time low.
It was very odd in the first place that statistics were allowed to go negative, but Ashley did not mind seeing the faces of terror and submission whenever she flashed a sadistic grin at any of the subjects she ruled over.
She was also able to control a virtually unlimited amount of evil eyes now, and she tended to float around with five or six of them circling around her like planets orbiting around a star.
All four of the antiheroes had reached strength that was far beyond anything that could even be considered comprehensible by the inhabitants of this world.
If it were to be ranked, then at the moment which Ashley first obtained 100 intelligence, she immediately became a being of the upper end of the 9th tier.
However, right now each and every member of the antiheroes was far beyond even that.
The 9th tier was the realm of the monster kings, and of the heroes. Anything beyond this was simply ludicrous- beyond even legends and fables.
Yet right now, at this moment, if she was to be ranked, Ashley held a power of the 14th tier.
This means that she was 3125 times as strong as even the monsters kings, or the heroes of legends.
The power held by the antiheroes however, was kept secret.
While their subjects believed that the antiheroes held powers beyond belief, the power differences between when they had first met and now were incomparable.
With power came responsibility.
The antiheroes became accustomed to ruling over the people of their village, and at the request of Arlo and Hiru, had eventually came to be sitting inside this castle-like core of the village, on the second floor where the brain-like structure was.
They each sat in one of five chairs, all formed from what looked like a collection of arms molded together in the shape of chairs. The arms each matched the different skin tones and veiny patterns that each of the antiheroes had for their own arms- modeled after themselves.
Trevor had his leg propped up on his knee and glasses pushed up, while Samantha sat on his right with her arms folded and legs crossed. On his left was Garett, who leaned on his own hand, seeming to be thinking about something in depth, tapping his chin repeatedly with his index finger. Ashley was almost laying down in her seat, slouching deep in it as if she were bored.
In front of them was a group of goblins.
Music could be heard in the background- it was what sounded like rock, being played by a group of 3 slime people. In front of the antiheroes were four goblins who were break-dancing.
Right now, the antiheroes were engaging in entertainment through a performance.
However, they heard a loud scream from outside.
"WHO DARES TO ENTER THE HOME OF THEIR EXCELLENCIES!?! THEY ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF AN IMPORTANT EVENT RIGHT NOW!!!"