34 Thinking

*Warning*

"Brother!" I yelled out as my hand gripped my chest a feel of heartburn and nausea almost floored me as I looked around confused. This place was dark, smelling of dirt and pine. I was no longer in the outskirts of Las Vegas, but in a forest.

It took me awhile to adjust myself to to the situation, I was on a path of revenge in the forest with a few close allies. This was a camp set up after I went unconscious and by the looks of it, it had been in place for a while now. In the corner of the brush made hit I was in lay a large dark figure snoring away, as I looked at him he scratched his butt and rolled over.

My brother was only five when I died, but I could still tell who it was. His eyes were like that of our mother that passed away during his birth, those hazel eyes that filled with green when they cried. It seemed as though my family was never spared from tragedy as even he had a son that died. I wondered about my friends, how their lives turned out, if anyone I knew was actually a great descendant of any of them.

I felt better though, I wasn't on some unknown world as I thought. Instead I was still on Earth, it had merely changed to the point where it was unrecognizable by any standards before. Humans seemed to be doing well, but they were struggling with the constant threats of Devils, Monsters, and other humans. From what I could gather humans merely occupied about ten percent of Earth, and even that was challenged each and every year to make way for beast tides and demon raids.

The only thing that humans had going for them is their fertility rate, this was much higher than any other race. The more powerful the race became, it seemed to lower the amount of children that they had. Humans on the other hand were strong enough to hold their own, but had a fairly high birth rate. These small steps kept them from being wiped out completely, and gave them footholds throughout the world instead.

"Lucif…" I whispered, remembering my previous life as a mechanic was over. This did give me insights to what needed to be done now, and let me know what I was neglecting in this world.

'Warning, race is no longer considered human. Changed to Monstrous Humanoid until race has been named.'

The voice in my head had changed somewhat, it was more feminine, with a hint of fake happiness like you'd get from someone who worked in customer support. With a raise of my eyebrow the system seemed to know what I was thinking and answered me.

'System has upgraded due to the existence of a castle. Upgrade requirements have been updated.'

'And what do I need to do to upgrade the system once more?' Waiting for the answer I brought up my menus curious on the changes.

'The next stage of development requires knowledge. Suggested buildings include: Library, Schoolhouse, Mage's Tower, Laboratory.' The System paused for a moment. "Upgrade paths offer three options: Magic Society, Technological Society, and Magitech Society. Details will be given once you meet the prerequisites for creating that society.'

'Any suggestions?' I noticed that the tabs were now gone, which confused me instead only one remained. It was a menu that pulled up a human body, the 3D image slowly circled around as I looked at it.

'I suggest getting the School and the Library built first as both are neutral, not leaning towards any path. In addition you have the materials for it, the Tower and Laboratory both require materials you do not have yet. The research provided by the School and Library will be invaluable to further create the Tower and Laboratory, plus it might offer further paths than just these three options.

Secondly, I would highly suggest killing more beasts or humans as you need more people to man your castle. Funds come in second as your people can gather gold if given the right commands, that you now have access to due to my upgrade.' Her voice was polite and calm, though had a hint of annoyance behind it as if I should have known this knowledge already.

Playing around with the 3D model I finally figured out its purpose, 'Eyes!' Two lists opened up in front of me, showing me both repairs I could do to the eyes, and upgrades. The repair section mostly had lists of things that come with age, and environment but the last option caught my eye, 'Full Automatic Repair (5,000)' this promised that my eyes would never deterate again.

Going through each section I found the same option each one varying in the amount of repair, unexpectedly the eyes were one of the more expensive options. The place that had the most options was the brain, everything from mood regulation, to lowering my immunity to endorphins. My skin having the least included things like fur and scales, but also had things like cooling regulation.

Out of curiosity I looked at my crotch for repairs and upgrades, only to quickly close it after seeing the weird options available to me. I am quite sure many perverts would kill for this system, but I truly worried if any changes could not be reversed.

Now though, did as the system suggested adding the Schoolhouse and the Library. Sending all the crab people to work on both of them, I opened up the menu for the Orcs and I saw a few different options. The menu was now just two options, interact, and destroy using either of the two pulled up a targeting cursor. Clicking on interact, and one of the trees to the side, the orc started to cut down the tree.

With a little bit of playing around I found out I could make the Orcs hunt, fish, build, dig, harvest, farm, and train. The dog had a much different list including sniff, dig, mark, hunt, and look for mate.

I send the Orcs to hunt, and the dog to look for a mate sending both groups into the forest for much different things. The timer on the person cutting down trees was set to infinite, the hunting party had a four hours, and the dog had a question mark. Wanting to test out all the features I planned on coming back to them once they were done.

Now, it was time to do something from my old knowledge. Placing my hands where the core is I concentrate my mana into a swirling whirlpool, concentrating everything into the core in my belly. There was a slight pain that started coming from the core, before I stopped pushing mana into it. Maybe ancient martial arts I learned from random stories I read could not effect a core like I once thought.

My body though after I checked it was no longer what it once was, instead of using my mana to enhance my body that was being constantly done by my core. This greatly increased my body's strength, agility, flexibility and mental capabilities. I brought up the 3D body again and checked it, 'Core.'

A menu appeared, showing several upgrades to it the repair option worried me even though the cost was going down. Symbiotic Core (49876) it's number dropped by one every second, so I still had about 14 hours before this repair would be free if everything kept going the way it was. With a groan, I simply laid down to get more rest, my mind was a mess of things that I had to do.

Setting my goals for tomorrow I noticed something appear in the system, a small sticky note that listed out everything that I was planning. "This has to be the most useful thing yet."

'System, what other upgrades have happened?'

'Would you like me to tell you, or would you like to see the patch notes?'

'Tell me please, I don't want to read raw data.'