It had been six days since they had last contact with Fenrich, Alex, Julia and Sasha. Ren kept reassuring them they were safe and alive still, but even Ren himself was sounding unconvinced as each day went by.
The zombies were constantly leveling up, there were more mutant beasts around, and humans were becoming true savages.
It had been the fourth day since they left their gym, they had been assaulted by a human who went by the name of Aaron Ulbroud, but that was the least of their concerns. The man had found an inheritance Class that was called Undead Apostle, and he had the ability to control zombies.
Chiaki had also found an inheritance Class of Epic rating named Renegade Blade, it came with a set of unique Skills named Silent Blade, Renegade Blade Energy and a set of Dao Visions that would be unlocked at level 20.
Silent Blade was self explanatory, Chiaki hardly talked as was, so it was easy for her to make the change over for vastly superior power. She gained a permanent 2x multiplier to all her basic and advanced attributes, under the condition that if she ever spoke again, Chiaki would immediately lose her life.
Renegade Blade Energy was what she described as her family's teaching of Sword Intent, it wasn't quite the same but was an multiplicative enhancement that superimposed with Sword Intent, and caused Sword related Skills and Combat Techniques to be 1.5x stronger than they should be overall.
Thankfully due to Chiaki's Epic Class granting her +20 all attributes and +15 undistributed attribute points a level, they had majorly all been able to survive.
It pained Ren, but he had to let go of the "fat" that was inherently weak and threatened their family. Those that did not work, train, or fight to level up and strengthen themselves.
Now, they had moved by foot, arriving in Kanata North and successfully cleared a Survival Game, which awarded them with a Shelter that was a step down from an A.I Smart Base.
They had clean water, daily meat, rice, vegetables being provided to their little enclave of 150 individuals by the Shelter itself on a daily basis. It was enough to provide for 1,000 to be comfortable, and pushing 1,600 if distributed evenly on a daily basis.
This Shelter had also come with a forge, alchemy room, training hall, and the most Common of Skill Book Towers. There was lastly a Library and a unique building called the Dao Gazing Altar. The unique building was awarded to them for being the first to claim a Shelter world-wide, as well as a huge bonus of Survivor Coins, Titles, additional attribute points and so forth.
Ren had, like Chiaki, found a weaker but evolvable Common inheritance Class called Fist Of The Equinox Blade. As a practitioner of Wing Chun, Krav Maga, Muay Thai and Jujitsu, on top of his mastery over the dual-wield Torrential Flow and Iai Shadowless Blade style of his family, this class couldn't be more perfect for him. Even though it was only Common rank, it gave out the same amount of attribute points as Chiaki's Epic Class did, not only that Ren had gained four Dao Visions of Fire, Ice, Fist and Sword back to back. Greatly empowering himself, and were the minimum requirements to receive the Fist Of The Equinox Blade Class.
One thing they had come to understand since the Integration Period started, not all inheritance Classes were even, some in the end gave short-term benefits and power but died out as there were no branching paths, thus leaving certain individuals unable to progress without destroying their Class, losing their levels, Skills and attribute points. This oftentimes led to damaged foundations where they could not even gain a Common class once more. This had left them in despair, until Ren made it so they could gain the Blacksmith or Alchemist profession for free, as long as they provided their future products at a reasonably discounted price.
It had been a very chaotic 7 day period in total, but it had also led to a lot of joy on Ren's part. He had managed to run into his family, bringing them to safety with him, his extended family from the gym and also creating a survivors enclave. He gained a Class that was essentially perfect for himself, gained in overwhelming power and was now able to do his part to support the enclave and those they continued to gather on a daily basis.
Outside of Ren and Chiaki another figure appeared calling himself the Sage, but his appearance was… unfortunate to say the least. The "Sage" was a homeless person, but yet he had the abilities of Divination, Fate Scrying, blessing one's overall Fortune and reading the lines of Karma. This had led to them being aware of more than five ambushes, with no deaths on their part since they formed the enclave with the Shelter as the base of operations. But the unfortunate news was that the Sage could not scry into Fenrich's current situation, when the Sage attempted to do so, he had nearly had his heart implode due to touching a "leyline of chaos."
However, it did foretell that Fenrich was in recovery, but said events were unreadable.
Ren opened his eyes as he awoke on the roof of the Shelter itself, frost of evening gave way to the budding warmth of the sun rising, these were the most perfect times for Ren to cultivate as he meditated on the Dao of Fire and Ice, which he had learned his affinities had reached the SSS tier for them both with Fist and Sword following behind just a step behind of SS+ tier.
Ren passed the next 45 minutes as he absorbed the purest of pure Yang energy that his family would have called it back in ancient times. In this time, his senses and perception was spread out in a 200 meter radius, he watched as the warriors began gearing up for another day of resource procurement and searching for other survivors. The people that converted and gained the Blacksmith and Alchemist Professions had already opened their designated work spaces, working on repairing the scavengers equipment, and alchemists were handing out Health, Mana and Stamina potions.
The last surprise to their enclave of survivors was a pair of twins that had already achieved the Dao of Life and Death, both being higher grade Dao's and due to their yin-yang nature, both twins empowered each other having been granted with synchronized Classes, Dao, and Skills related to their unique Classes. Not only that, their biggest benefit was the Nihility Blessing they gave to the enclave. Just for being a part of it, everybody gained +50 to all basic attributes and +30 to advanced attributes for a full twenty four hour period. The growth rate of crops, herbs, flowers, and other timed resources were increased by 3x and their amounts easily doubled.
Ren smiled, but within that smile was also the budding seed of boredom. It was not easy being a leader, numerous headache inducing duties and tasks came his way everyday. There had already been twenty different public hangings for rape, molestation, terrorist acts and an upbringing to kill them all to claim the Shelter for themselves. Those people were utter trash as they had dreams of being "warlords" wanting to lord over, enrich themselves while sleeping with women of all ages and ethnicities on a daily basis. While they got to eat and live lavishly, they would make their populace of survivors broke, and without being fed despite having more than enough resources to feed 1,600 mouths.
But, today that would all change. From the previous day Chiaki had secured a bunch of white-collared people that held government jobs, or ran their own firms and smaller businesses. Ren had a meeting with them all to set up the outlines of an administrative body that would have different cabinets dealing with money, agriculture, city planning on a far smaller scale and various others.
This was the most important for Ren, as this would "free" him up so that he could be out in the field actively culling the number of zombies, mutant beasts and gathering the resources they needed in bulk to supply far higher numbers of humans. Not only that, they had killed a raid boss with his, Chiaki, and the life-death twins and gained a formal Guild Creation Tablet, and an even rarer Land Lease.
This Land Lease was built in with all the required resources to create over 10,000 houses, farmlands, smithies, alchemy labs above and underground, and it came with a unique room that awakened High tier Bloodlines that would further enhance their population.
But Ren did not want to make such rushed decisions without properly scoping out the proper land to activate this Land Lease, or establishing a Guild. If it was like in games where it came with benefits in the ways of earning extra money, stats, experience points, resources and so forth, he wanted to have Fenrich back as the three of them, and the other soon to be leaders such as the Sage to discuss how its best used to benefit them and the future expansion plans that Ren had in mind.
Ren activated the Long Distance Communication Orb, and sent off a very, very lengthy message to Fenrich, he knew that it was sent as this was the third one he sent doing so on a bi-daily basis. But the prompt he got back every time seemed like it was filled with more and more chagrin each time towards him.
[Long Distance Communication Orb - Your message has been successfully sent, however, the receiver is in a timed Dungeon space where they are unable to receive your messages. They will receive your continuous barrage of messages after they have exited or claimed the Dungeon as their own property. Begrudgingly, they will also be able to reply back, one time, per message.]
Ren smiled as he saw this prompt come his direction, there was no sense of snarky annoyance deeply entwined from their overseer who made these system based prompts for them.
"You've got that shit eating smile again, has the prompts gotten more snarky with you, again?" A man with long unkempt hair, unruly beard and torn apart clothing. Although he looked like he was trying to turn water to wine, and walk across it with swagger.
"Sage, you're seeming to be very well mannered today. Have you been able to keep away from the alcohol this morning?"
"Sigh, your words cut deep like an emo person giving themselves homemade tattoos. But yes, today I am fifteen minutes sober!"
Ren facepalmed as he had clearly praised the Sage too early.
"Cheer up, sunny. I wasn't always a schizophrenic bat shit insane homeless person. It's debatable that I have been touched by the spectrum, but I have always won over my artist, autisti, artistic tendencies. Anyways… that is besides the point of why I am here. Like I said, I wasn't always a -"
"Yes, yes, yes I get the point, Sage. As much as I appreciate your odd sense of twisted humor, just say what you have to say, please…. and thank you." Ren replied, already feeling as if the Sage was like Pinocchio who rammed their face into his ass and began lying like crazy.
"Wow, rude. Anyways, I am here today so that I can relieve you of the duties that have been placed upon your shoulders as you are the known leader of our little survivor enclave here. A bunch of my old friends have been guided here by my Dao, and are true leaders that have run as prime ministers, cabinet ministers, or other high positions in a country. They have been planted with my Dao and are thus soul bound and completely loyal to me, and thus loyal to you or the true leader you are waiting for to emerge from that Mini Game Dungeon."
Feeling the shift in Ren's attitude, the Sage quickly clarified himself as he told Ren to take a closer look at his eyes, as he removed the white cloth that was thickly wrapped around his eyes. When it was revealed, the Sages eye sockets were completely empty like two grooves into the dirt as you stared down into the hole hundreds and thousands of meters deep.
"I did not lie to you, but I have paid a certain "price" to ensure the safety of Fenrich Albaston and his group of soon to be emerging powerhouses that can help us survive the Integration Period, building the foundations for when our world is forcibly merged with other worlds in 23 more days from now. Fenrich will appear on the 13th day of the Integration Period, and by the 14th day will have arrived here with us. The Mini Game Dungeon they are in is actually an A.I Smart Base, and will have a thirty day safety period, carrying seventeen days over into the true beginning of our first stage of survival after the Integration Period ends."
"It is on the 2nd carry over day the Land Lease will be used in the most suitable position to begin building an Empire for humanity. The people I have gathered and made soul bound, are so you, Chiaki, Fenrich, Eril and Meril (life-death twins), Laura, Garen, Jackson and the other apex powerhouses will be the available fighting force. And I am also here to inform you of where you can find the Empyrean Aegis Cultivation Manual. It is located in Carleton Place inside of another Dungeon that is of Nightmare difficulty. It is a single-person Dungeon, and you need to get it before its fated beholder arrives to claim it."
"Last but not least, I come bearing gifts in the form of Equipment, Skill Books and Artifacts that will ensure your survival to bring back the Empyrean Aegis Cultivation Manual. In ten days from now, Fenrich and one of his old enemies from a past timeline will clash, that person is not fated for the Empyrean Aegis Cultivation Method, but they do have the highest affinity to bring out its full power, and the sleeping latent potential within the truly blessed but destined to die humans."
"I swear on my Dao, my life and my Karma to be instantly annihilated by tribulation lightning if I have any thoughts of betrayal, or ulterior motives for freeing you to claim the Empyrean Aegis Cultivation Manual." Ren could feel the atmosphere thicken as if he went from a liquid to a jelly-like substance.
Ren nodded his head in which the Sage smiled with clear relief and gave Ren a thumbs up.
"I-"
"Being blind has made me able to "see" far more than you could imagine. It truly was a blessing in disguise, Ren. And before you ask how you're going to go from here to Carleton Place, I have your means of transportation already taken care of, as well as what you'll need to survive that Dungeon."
Behind the Sage, the surrounding atmosphere twisted and folded into itself, Spatial magic was forming a teleportation channel that showed an image of Carleton Place and its hoard of zombies and mutant beasts.
"You will earn a fancy Title for being the first world-wide human to liberate and claim an old once human occupied town before the apocalypse began. As well as with the Empyrean Aegis Cultivation Manual and all kinds of levels and more."
Ren took the spatial ring that had 100 cubic meters and was full to the brim of miscellaneous survival tools and equipment, it had huge quantities of clean water, food, potions, pickaxes, shovels, spades, woodcutting axes and more.
"Carleton Place is a treasure trove of high tier resources that belong to a B+ world and not a lowly E- world like Earth is, these are the tools, hand drawn maps and other necessities you will need to survive and bring back as much of everything as you can. Inside the spatial ring are dozens of Long Distance Communication Orbs to remain in contact. I can only perform one more divination or give one more push to save you from a life and death situation before my Soul is irrevocably damaged. Do not be afraid to demand or order me to do such a thing, you were a leader for a long enough time here and a future God with unrivaled power. It's time to lose some of that softness you still hold onto, but not become an emotionless killing machine that can't think for themselves."
Ren kept calm as he digested all of the Sage's words.
"Thank you, Sage. I need this not only for selfish reasons, but if I remain stationary any longer and fall behind. I will never be able to truly gain the power to protect the entirety of my family, the future Empire or my budding love that I have for Eril." Ren patted the Sage on the shoulder as he walked past the man to go through the teleportation channel before his eyes.
"My only orders for you will be to ensure things don't go to shit here. And also to wipe Erils memories of what has been spoken here. Curiosity killed the cat, but she is one of us and so is her twin Meril. Do not let her Karma get intrinsically involved where it could threaten her because of its connection to me here today."
The sage smiled with appreciation as he spoke with full confidence towards Ren, "Understood, boss. Thank you for your trust."
Ren disappeared, and as he did Eril came out of hiding from a cloud of death essence that shrouded all signs of life.
"You heard the boss man, it's time for you to lose your memories and stay safe away from the Karmic pulls bound to Ren, little lady."
Before Eril could escape or put up a struggle in any shape or form, her eyes turned lifeless for fifteen seconds, then clarity and "life" came back as she looked around her surroundings. "Weird, I never go close to the boss's vicinity like this. The morning sun is nice though, despite him being a Fire cultivator. I can see why he enjoys watching the sunrise as it gives birth to a new day."