When I woke up the next morning, I felt horrible. An intense pain coursed through my body, while weakness and dizziness made every movement feel like a challenge. I felt like I was sick, like something inside me was out of place.
Despite everything, I gathered the little courage I had and got up. I had too many things to do this morning to allow myself to fall back into bed. As soon as my feet touched the ground, my legs gave way, and I was about to fall. I held onto a nearby piece of furniture, breathing deeply to calm the vertigo. Slowly, my balance returned, and I decided to go outside. The cold morning air hit my face like a slap, clearing my mind and helping me focus.
It was then that I saw the overwhelming number of notifications floating in front of me.
[Congratulations, you have overcome the second disaster of the initial stage]
[Rewards:
10,000 copper coins, 10 weapons (Copper), 5 full sets of armor (Copper), 5 pairs of farm animals, Church blueprint, Stable blueprint, Dock blueprint, 5 merchant carts, 5 cargo carts, 1 carriage, 1 skill upgrade token (Silver), 1 class experience token (Copper)]
[Congratulations, you have overcome the second disaster of the initial stage (Level 2)]
[Rewards:
15,000 copper coins, 25 weapons (Copper), 10 full sets of armor (Copper), 5 pairs of farm animals, 2 war animals, Barracks blueprint, Library blueprint, Road blueprint, 10 merchant carts, 10 cargo carts, 2 skill upgrade tokens (Silver), 1 class experience token (Copper)]
[Congratulations, you have overcome the second disaster of the initial stage (Level 3)]
[Rewards:
20,000 copper coins, 10 weapons (Silver), 5 full sets of armor (Silver), 1 pair of exotic animals, 3 war animals, Castle blueprint, University blueprint, Hospital blueprint, 1 small boat, 1 skill upgrade token (Gold), 1 class experience token (Silver)]
[Congratulations to all who have overcome their disaster. The initial stage is now complete, and the following changes will take effect immediately.]
[The "virtual" market will only be available on the first day of the month, the middle day, and the last day. Items sold and bought from entities other than other players may have certain limits.]
[Modifying world rules]
[Speed increased in non-biological aspects: Jobs such as construction, study, and resource gathering (among others) will develop more quickly (the speed will vary depending on the activity). This change will remain in effect until the final test unless stated otherwise. Note: This change does not affect participants or individuals who have used empire foundation elements.]
[During the next week, all foundation elements are active for use. After this period, 90% of unused elements will be redistributed throughout the world.]
[From now on, for all camps that survived this disaster, the next disasters will be annual.]
[The villages that have survived have been recognized as legitimate. Protection over them disappears, and natives can interact with them directly. Note: If a participant loses control of their land, they will have a period of time to regain it before losing or degrading their leadership classes.]
[Migration period begins: Villages can receive migrations from the surrounding areas to integrate into their populations. Among these migrating masses, it is possible to find particular individuals: masters of their craft or experts of various kinds. Tip: Use wisdom, charisma, and other abilities to keep these individuals in your lands and get them to join your populations.]
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There were so many notifications that I had to stop and look at them closely to understand them. All of this had appeared overnight, and although I had ignored them at first, now I had no choice but to study them thoroughly. I still had many doubts, but luckily, the help and guide system was as active as ever, unlike other functions that had degraded, like the market.
After analyzing them a bit during breakfast, I decided to stop and check on my people. The first sick individuals didn't take long to appear. If I felt bad, there were others who couldn't even get out of bed. Although it was only two or three people, the situation was worrying.
I also received the first refugees from these "migrations": a group of five adults and two children. One of my men informed me that they had arrived during the night, but those who received them had prevented them from entering until I made a decision. I met them and discovered that they were natives of this cursed land who had lost their home after a bandit attack. I guess this was one of the many scenarios the world had set up to provoke these migrations. After talking to them and offering shelter in exchange for loyalty, they agreed. I saw how the population, which had decreased after the previous attack, began to grow again, albeit modestly.
It seemed like this would be a good way to increase my population now that raiding had been disabled. Yes, that was one of the notifications: from now on, if we wanted to raiding, we would have to do it on our own, without being transported near enemy camps. This left me in a complicated situation since there were no camps nearby; I was the only one in this desolate region.
It was also necessary to organize the rewards, most of which had appeared in the center of the camp. Among the most striking items were the accumulation of carts, the carriage, and, surprisingly, a boat that had appeared in the middle of the land. Solving this wouldn't be an easy task.
I continued with the animals, which luckily were quite tame; otherwise, it would have been a big problem. Among them were the war animals: horses that looked much more imposing than their farm counterparts. I didn't know what to do with them. Very few in my camp knew how to ride and/or fight, so for now, they would have to stay with the other animals until we managed to build a stable.
As for the farm animals, this was where I truly got scared. There was variety: pigs, cows, chickens, geese... and humans. Yes, humans. I couldn't believe what I was seeing: two people, a man and a woman naked, were staying with the other animals, as tame as they were. At first, I thought they were some of my subjects having a good time or refugees who had infiltrated the camp. But I quickly discarded both possibilities.
Soon, I got answers. One of the new members, part of the small refugee family, enlightened us. Although he had never been directly in contact with anything like this, he had heard stories from his father and met people who had seen it. According to him, these two people in front of us, just like that indifferent and foolish girl we had met before, were not really humans like us. They were... human livestock.
He explained to us that, in the past, some evil creatures that fed on humans had developed sedentary practices. Since they fed on humans, they began to breed them in captivity, and over time, a new species developed that, although similar in appearance to humans, lacked intelligence and will of its own, becoming farm animals.
This explained why there was no intelligence in the eyes of that girl or in those of these two people. They were not humans, but extremely tame animals. Upon hearing this revelation, several members of my camp seemed to recall similar fragments from their own memories, as if a mental barrier had been broken. I gathered all the possible information from these people, and everything confirmed this strange and bizarre truth.
But now, what would I do? They weren't human, but they looked too much like one. I couldn't just throw them out, but I couldn't treat them like the others either. I was confused. What was the point of keeping more mouths to feed if they couldn't contribute anything in return? And it wasn't like they were invalids or sick; they simply were... Eventually, I decided to postpone the decision. I entrusted the care of this pair and the other girl to an experienced farmer with animals, as there was no better option. They would be taken care of while I found a solution.
After seeing people who, in essence, were animals whose sole purpose was to serve as livestock, I found it hard to focus on other matters. The other animals were more normal, except for those two exotic creatures I had received as part of the third reward. They were a kind of giant mouflon that would intimidate anyone. Standing on all fours with their heads held high, they could reach almost a person's height. Their horns were imposing, and their bodies were covered with dense wool that made them appear larger and fatter than they actually were. One was dark brown, and the other was dirty white.
Even my farmers didn't know exactly what these creatures were, but they promised to investigate them little by little. For now, they would be another mystery in this world that was becoming more and more incomprehensible.
I proceeded with the weapons and armor, which this time came with their own shelves and mannequins where they were perfectly arranged. This was good, as they could be reused once we had the barracks up and running.
Next, we moved on to the chests full of coins, several large ones. I didn't understand why they gave us so many copper coins when using a smaller amount of a higher level would have been much more practical. However, I couldn't do anything about it. Anyway, it was a large sum of money, and I had to ask several men to take them to be stored in the house.
The plans were filed along with the others, and the repeated ones could perhaps be sold later. They weren't as important as the latest rewards: the skill tokens and the class experience.
Class experience was similar to tokens, except it provided a certain amount of experience to the classes, or even entire levels. Depending on the class, it gave more or less experience, so it was convenient to use them on lower-level classes, at least these low-level experience tokens.
The lowest-ranking class I had was [Beggar], which ironically had the highest level of all. It was one of the most basic classes, although its predecessor, [Slave], was at the same level as [Worker]. However, this was because [Slave] represented an alternative, while [Beggar], in itself, was a viable starting class.
Although some of the other classes were more attractive, I was sure I wouldn't be able to maximize them with these experience tokens. So, I decided to focus on improving something that could advance quickly, especially since certain [Beggar] skills would be useful in this situation.
I used the experience tokens and discovered that, for the [Beggar] class, each copper token granted 20 levels of experience, while the silver ones gave 40. This made a total of 80 levels for [Beggar], more than enough to reach the maximum. Fortunately, the excess was applied to the next class, though with half the effectiveness.
That's how I maximized the [Beggar] class, improving three of its skills: one specific to [Beggar] and two from its subdivisions. Finally, [Beggar] evolved into the [Commoner] class, with its respective branches: [Opportunistic Commoner] and [Honest Commoner]. With this evolution, I gained two new skills: [Danger Sense], from [Opportunistic Commoner], which manifested as a survival instinct to escape, and [Hard Work], from [Honest Commoner]. However, I didn't keep the latter skill, as a message appeared indicating that I already had similar skills: [Tireless] and [Jack of All Trades].
What happened was that [Jack of All Trades] improved one level due to synergy with [Tireless], as a result of the discarded intermediate skill. I still don't fully understand how the skill mechanics work, and the messages aren't always clear.
After this, I reviewed the remaining skill tokens and improved those skills that could evolve. I focused on [Danger Sense], as I considered it vital for my survival.
My status and skills were as follows:
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[Lyricus]
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Race: [Opportunistic C], [Honest C]
Class: [Slaughterer (6/100)], [Commoner (7/100)], [Mayor (5/100)], [Dark Master (4/100)]
Assimilated Classes: [Worker], [Slave], [Beggar(N|H)]
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Skills:
- Jack of All Trades (Gold)
- Kill/Slaughterer (Diamond)
- Carrier of Plagues (Heroic)
- Danger Sense (Gold)
Resistances:
- Tireless (Heroic)
- Diseases Immunity (Heroic)
- Food Poisoning Resistance (Silver)
- Weather Resistance(Silver)
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- Jack of All Trades (Gold): +12% work speed.
- Carrier of Plagues (Heroic): Any disease you carry will spread as you pass by.
- Diseases Immunity (Heroic): Partial immunity to acquired diseases.
- Food Poisoning Resistance (Silver): Reduces damage and risks from consuming spoiled food.
- Weather Resistance (Silver): Mitigates adverse effects of extreme weather.
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