I was still within my apartment, but now it had ged, appearing much rger, the room extending out to a distance of a dozeres in every dire. Standing in the tre was a sial spike, maybe five timetres thid two metres tall. It was a silvery metal, yet it glowed with a myriad of rainbow colours, like an oil sli water.

  This must be my Territory Anchor… Still, it was iing how the scale of my room had ged. If only I had this much spa the Material world… Looking around a bit more I found quite a pile of ether floating in the air around the room, and quickly gathered it in

  You currently possess 309 Ether.

  “her for doing nothing. I guess this is my base resource produ, around fifty a day?” In any RTS getting resources faster than your oppos was the key to victory, and while I was still not sold on being an Astral Emperor and being embroiled in all sorts of life-threatening battles saving the Earth, I couldn’t be sure my petitors would all be of the same (or even sane) mind, and Exposition-san made it clear there would be others.

  The first thing I o do was to narrow down my options in terms of what facilities to struct. My wrist glowed silver as I examined my Territory and checked out tions were avaible. After some p I picked the first four that I felt would give me the maximum gain.

  They were the Ether Spire, Silo, Spawning Spire, and Defensive Empt.

  The Ether Spire was a no brainer. Ether Spire Rank 1 – At Your curreory Rank you may pce up to two Ether Spires. These Spires will increase the rate your Territory draws Ether from the higher Astral. If pced in an area of rich Ether the level of gain will be increased. In addition if pced in an area with abundant Elemental, ????? or ????? resources, then some of this will be accrued as well. Cost 1500 Ether.

  It was a shame my skill Rank didn’t appear to be high enough for the full information, but what I could see was enough. The sooner I could build things to increase my ether gain, the sooner I would be able to afford better facilities.

  Silo Rank 1 – This Silo will securely store up to 5000 Ether, proteg it from theft or loss. You may traher between yourself and this Silo at any time. Additional Annexes be built to hold special resources. Cost 500 Ether.

  Spawning Spire Rank 1 – This Spire create up to ten basic-css troops based on those you or your forces have defeated. These troops are a degraded version of their base type, able only to defend themselves, the Territory and follow simple orders. They ot gain experiend will not rise in Levels. You currently create lesser spirits, graveyard zombies and weaselkin. Cost 1000 Ether.

  So there were two things of i here. The first thing was that the giant rodents I had been fighting must have been weaselkin. The sed was that while the Barracks erior choi terms of troops, if I built one I didn’t have any options for troops to build from it, as the requirements appeared far harsher.

  Defensive Empt Rank 1 – this spire will use stored Ether and vert it into aher bolt to attack those who encroa your Territory. Additional offensive and defensive armaments be built with advanced resources. Cost 1500 Ether.

  And stly, the Defensive Empt offered a level of active defence. Having a few of these, as long as I could support the ether drain, would no doubt fend off probing assaults and enemy scouts, as well as give me more peaind.

  The stage of preparation was to make sure I roperly armed. Looking around my expanded apartment I could see the knife, bow and st few arrows, as well as my bent railing. There were also a number of other bits and pieces lying around. Over the past few days I had sidered my options in this regard, in addition to doing some researline. Obviously I was lousy with a sword, as I had proved earlier. The bow would be tempting, as attag fre is what I ideally wao do, but I knew from experience being that being any good with it was really hard. That left something simpler, like a spear…

  Gathering up the knife and the bent fe I decided to head back to the graveyard. There was something I needed from there, and in addition to that, there were zombies aherite ores about. If I was careful and avoided dangerous things I should be able to make plenty of ether, as well as sort out my on woes.

  Exiting my apartment I looked around. It appeared much the same as before, except a circle of silvery light surrounded my apartment building, enclosing the area around it until it ran into other buildings ot more thay or so metres away. I could somehow feel that this was the boundary of my Territory. Closing the door behind me I was surprised to see that the outside of my apartment building looked the same as always, despite the inside being bigger. It reminded me of the old Doctor Who videos I used to watch with my mom, sister and Eri- when I was a child.

  Taking a further look around I noticed that there were no lesser spirits nearby anymore. That was a bit of a shame as free ether was free ether, but I had other pns. I quickly raced towards the graveyard, and after a few minutes I was at the gates, knife in hand. It didn’t take me long to find my first zombie, and I e, using my ko make quick work of it. There were also a few lesser spirits about, and I pluhem as I went.

  Soon after, I had reached the area of darkhat held the giant tree full of eerie crows. The red glow of the Etherite ore was still there, but it was not what I had e for. I wasn’t going to ce all those giant birds for that. As I approached they eyed me threateningly, but I maintained my slow, steady pace, stopping at the point where they started to bee restless.

  I quickly spotted what I was looking for. One of the lower brahat was not occupied by the birds, long, thid straight. trating hard I took a few deep breaths. This was a bit of a gamble, but I was fident that I could pull it off. I elled my aether and a sshing line of fire burst out, severing the branch with the hissing of steam. As it fell I snatched it with my aether, pulling it towards me even as I was running away. The crows let out a cacophony of g, several dozen taking flight and ing after me, red eyes bzing.

  I quickly cycled ether into aether, replenishing my stocks to boost my speed, muscles in my legs protesting at the hard use. As I fled, the crows began to return to their tree, satisfied that they had driven off the intruder. A brief thought of snatg the Etherite that way had crossed my mind as well, but I doubted the crows would be so quick to retreat if I had dohat.

  Once I was out of the graveyard I retreated all the way bay Territory, using up more ether. I didn’t want to be disturbed during the part, and I was still a little ed the ight ge their minds and follow me. Onside my room I examined my possessions. Wait, I could have saved some energy by leaving the iron railing here if I was going to e bayway…

  Putting down the branch I focused my aether and using all of my imagination unleashed fire. There was a series of buzzing hisses of fme and ks of dark wood flew in every dire. Ohe chaos had subsided I retty tired, so I absorbed yet more of my limited ether stocks. What remained was a six-foot long pole, made of dark wood burned an even darker shade by my fme. I was quite impressed by my workmanship, actually. I guess w on 3d art and design projects helps with this sort of thing.

  The step was going to be much harder though. Taking up the iron railing I trated, this time using pure visualisation rather than vertiher into fire to cut with. I could feel my aether vanishing rapidly, and I expeher quickly. The drain was still not slowing, so I fed it more and more of my dwindling supply until with a fsh the iron bar disied into a series of tough metal threads and a metal pin.

  was the knife. I used aether to bore a hole in the handle, as well as a matg hole in the wood. I then used my dregs te it all together, the ends of the pin fring out to hold it in pce, reinforced by the metal threads.

  And done, I have a spear. The wickedly sharp bde of the knife was the head, while the haft was the long smooth branch, trimmed into a pole. I took a few test swings and it seemed solid. With that I sat down with a thump, sweat dripping from me and vanishing into the air. As I expected. Certain things seem to have more of a reality than other things, such as the knife, so I use those to make things that st here…still, it is not cheap to do so…

  You currently possess 21 Ether.

  That had drained an awful lot of ether. And what was worse was that I retty low on energy again. Abs the st of my stock, I grimaced. Starting from zero again was going to be a pain, but with my on I hoped I could make up for the losses quickly.

  In any case there is y fetting kicked out due to ck of aether this time. My Territory should still be here when I charge up enough again. I think I’ll stay away from the graveyard for a while, I’d best not provoke the crows any more than I o.

  Shouldering my spear I left my Territory, heading iher dire. As I wound my way down the narrow streets towards the local store, there were a few lesser spirits to plunder, but there wasn’t much else. It was then as I approached an interse that I saw something. It looked like another zombie, though this one was a bit more hunched over. It was a man dressed in rags with a pale dead fad bck eyes. It was rummaging through a dustbin, rge hands tipped with long, discoloured nails digging right in. As I approached it, it raised its head, sniffing at the air. Suddenly it turo face me, mouth gaping open to reveal an array of long fangs, slid dirty with carrion.

  Moving my spear out in front of me, I took a defea knocked aside the bin it was searg and loped towards me, strides long, arms swinging rapidly.

  Damn, this one is fast. It might be ae zombie like the woman in the graveyard. As it surged closer I dropped low and thrust. My aim wasn’t great but the spear stabbed into one arm, shredding it. The zombie reared back away from the bde, giviime to strike again, bde pung through flesh and into its guts. Ropey, rotting iiumbled out, tripping it, giviime to pull the bde free and hammer it into the zombie’s face. It let out a final groan and colpsed, sparking iher.

  Well, that wasn’t as scary as it could have been. I definitely felt better being a couple of metres away from my enemy, rather than right up in its face. However, not having enough aether to use in emergencies is foolish. I had best build up a reserve before I worry about building up my Territory. After all, you only live once, right?