Building Up and Breaking Down

Ten days later…

A young woman in bougie fur clothing and a body suit and a young man in a trench coat were standing outside of the Tower of Eternity.

"He screwed up the plan. It says he's still level 9."

"It's a King Dungeon though. The possible rewards probably far outstrip the levels we could get."

"I mean…25 levels?"

"Forget it. Are we going in?"

Ion looked towards Che, who she knew as Rex.

"Eh, like you said, it's one of the 12 King Dungeons. We have no idea what to expect."

"He went in though. Anyways, is everything else done?"

"Yea. His dad says they're okay. The Georgia National Guard apparently took over the city of Atlanta. It's on track to be a haven. Mine, on the other hand, are good in Guangzhou."

"That's a quick response…"

*Ugh. He was right. They're quick.*

"Well. Unlike in movies, the government definitely has all manner of contingency plans. And even if they couldn't handle it, martial law and the power of the military is not to be underestimated. Sooner or later, they'll probably begin to conscript. This is a crisis after all."

"So, we'd definitely be best going in. We can't allow ourselves to be weaker than him."

"You're right…"

"Oh, so you're a pussy too?"

"Okay, wow. I am not a pussy."

"Then, let's go."

"Alright then."

The two began to walk toward the tower.

Zpt.

A white light flashed, and they were gone.

***

James Paget was sitting quietly, rubbing his temples, and getting ready to report the news today.

He sighed.

It was depressing to say the least.

The predicted death toll is in the beginning millions, martial law instituted by pretty much all governors. An organized group of relatively intelligent beings, dubbed "Baraccis", took over New York City. The Sky-High City had become a nesting ground for gryphons. Various extremely large creatures were spotted. The Navy let leak that the seas were no longer as safe. This was just the stuff he was slated to talk about for this hour of the show. There was so much more. The world was going to shit quicker than he ever expected it too. His sister had been killed by a goblin. Shit was not okay, and yet America expected him to still come on and report.

Sigh.

"Are we ready?"

"Yes sir. You got on in 3. 2. 1."

The aid gave him a finger gun to represent go.

"Alright, welcome, America, back to the news you need to hear. We've got more reports coming in every minute of ever hour, and I'll be reporting on them throughout the day. For now, though, we've got death estimates so far, news on martial law implementation, new intelligent species, and more. Let's start with the toll so far and what you can do to stay safe…"

Lira watched this all on a TV in his home while eating popcorn.

"This guy won't break, but he's so close to it. Respect. He probably never expected his previous duty and privilege to become the chain that shackled him even in such a situation. There's…so much death. There's plenty of low-level monsters outside, and if the rest of the US is anything like this, it'll definitely be higher than a couple million. This is a crisis humanity has never seen before. Even the world wars killed tens of millions. This is literally a War of Worlds. If we're strong, I say we'll lose 52 percent. If we're weak, 80%."

*I need to stop talking to myself so much. Those kids might be back anytime. Then, I can go see my parents, and the journey can continue.*

"Guess I'll go grab a few levels. I can't tell if monsters are respawning or just not done spawning in. Is this wave-based or area…So much to find out. So, I'll participate in this…sanguine ritual. That's what it should be called. Bathed by blood, hardened by fire, man must succeed."

Thus, Lira jumped out of the same window he had before and began to slaughter the nearby beasts.

This time though, his movements had already begun to display an overwhelming feeling to them. Sloppy movements were now far more stable. Where before, he had to move his whole body to dodge, often forgetting to keep track of his unused hand, he was now trying to keep within his frame when dodging and reading his opponents body language.

He had always been skilled in interactions, and he knew it. Combat, words, knowledge, etc. The only issue was learning the nuances of each kind.

Now though, his movements showed effort in doing just that. Pattern learning and prediction based off muscle movements, control of the extremities when moving, swift powerful strikes meant to cut deep, and an understanding of what he wanted out of each strike. Control. He had improved greatly. Then again, for him, a lot of things had happened, things very few other beings could relate to. It would be hard to not to improve after what he had gone through. As such, it was more important that, even now, he was still improving.

Thus, even without being higher level and having greater stats, purely off of skill, these various smaller creatures were simply no match.

*I wonder if "live by the blade, die by the blade" applies to good men too. Of course, there should be an updated saying for the gun warfare of today.*

So quickly, the Legend of the Dreadknight was beginning to take shape.

***

In one of the few commercial areas of Duluth, there were a few people fighting monsters. One in particular stood out as he was tackling a monster that others stayed far away from.

"Hey, Deevo, look at that over there? The guy's soloing a Dreuin!"

"The black guy?"

"Yea."

"Holy shit, he's destroying it. Yo record it, record it."

"Already on it."

…

Level 43…

Swpt.

Lira's now silver longsword cut its way directly through a quadrupedal furred-beast with a caiman-like thin snout.

*It stands no chance at all. Those guys also still aren't out and its been at least 15 days. Didn't take me this long? That mean they'll come out incredible? I hope. My rewards from beating the trial have made things a bit boring at this level. Where's a boss when you need one.*

Lira spotted a group of ogres, or what he'd imagine they'd be if they weren't trolls.

*Why are some beasts traditional and others not? Some are our mythology, and others are new and wildly creative, yet still functional.*

He began his trudge over.

Ouun?

A deep guttural voice issued from within the group. Instantly, the ogres in the group who held longbows swung their heads towards Lira who wasn't wearing his armor. Their hands moved, bows up, strings taunt, ready to shoot.

Lira kept walking forward.

*1…2…3…56? They've built a little camp and everything. God, seeing another relatively intelligent species, as a human, is always chilling. Is that one wielding a traffic sign? Sometimes they spawn with weapons, sometimes they don't. What is going on with that?*

Lira summoned his sword staff. When he summoned it, red smoke began to come off of it forming into what looked like a dragon head above him. Lira, himself, also seemed to have a red glint to his whole body instead of just his eyes which were now cardinal.

*Start off with 12.*

Lira stomped and jumped high into the air.

GRAAAH!

The ogres immediately let their arrows fly.

FWIP! SEEEHR! FWIP! FWIP! FWIP! SHEEEER!

Bolt like arrows launched to the sky at speeds easily surpassing 40 meters a second.

Surprisingly though, that's all they did.

They failed to reach anywhere near Lira, instead all just passing by his area of the sky.

*Maybe level 50+ monsters could get over it?*

Lira came crashing down to the ground in the middle of their group. He immediately thrusted towards the nearest ogre archer who was already jumping back.

Swpt! Puff! Swff!

The blade of the sword staff penetrated straight through its skull before being slashed out as Lira made rotating diagonal slash downwards towards the ogre to his right, while bending slightly left to dodge a spear thrust that was aimed at his left torso.

He then immediately performed a wide slash in a semicircle letting the staff slide to the butt before holding tight, cutting through six nearby ogres that were previously out of reach, before letting go of the butt and sending the staff flying out towards another group of ogres that were holding clubs.

ARRRGH!

The layers of ogres split and a very large ogre, its muscles seemingly popping out of its figure, roared as it began to run towards him with pure unadulterated hatred in its eyes.

*Is that the leader? Chilling. Didn't think I'd see such pure emotion. Must've killed his dad…I'll send you too him promptly.*

Lira charged toward the ogre as well.

*I'll give you a man's death, huh. I'm pretty good at hand to hand.*

Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!

Clump! Clump! Clump!

AAAARRGH!

HAAAAAAH!

The two figures smashed into each other, hands grasping hands.

This was a contest of pure power.

However, before they could both put their all into pushing, Lira swept his leg into back of the ogre's knee forcing him to kneel before kneeing his head with all the force he could muster, instantly snapping his neck.

The ogre stayed in that position looking up towards the sky for a few moments, tears falling from its eyes before it finally fell back.

Once it fell to the ground unmoving, the other ogres all stopped moving and stared at the corpse. They then looked at Lira and kneeled.

*Hmm? Are they begging for their lives, pledging their allegiance, or something else?*

Lira slowly walked towards them and tried something.

"You may rise."

They all got up.

*So, there's an element of respect in building allegiance? Well, no. These things are somewhat real. Maybe, they were simply moved from their worlds' here. In their culture, the strongest may be the one to follow, as they aren't so mentally developed as current humanity. As for understanding me, maybe it's the system?*

"Follow me."

*Do I get exp from letting them fight for me? Why isn't this surprising me more? No, actually, if this is the case, Phase One is coming faster than I thought. How many other monsters can I do this with? Mid-level intelligence only? Let's find out, starting with ogres.*

…

Thus, over the next few days, while waiting for Ion and Che to get out, Lira went around trying to find all the various groups of ogres as he had previously seen Ion carrying what looked like a different variant.

The outcome?

Within 5 days, he had reached level 49, and had an army of somewhere in the hundreds of ogres.

All the while, though he was aware it would attract attention, he had no idea just how much and the type of attention it was attracting.

"Ogre King! Man shows incredible strength and ogres follow his will!"

"Incredible Individuals show the world why Humanity is the top!"

All within just around a month of the change.

This is not to say Lira hadn't seen himself. He had seen a viral video of him on YouTube, but no one knew him, and that was the end of it. He, however, didn't expect for people to start trying to twist his image into that of a monster.

"Dark Knight controls other monsters! Growing issue!"

"Is he a human or a dark elf?"

*Yo, what the fuck? I'm black, not a dark fucking elf. And, how do you get me mixed up with not being human when there are other incredible humans too. Also, the internet still hasn't been completely screwed. Probably the only reason that society holds at least a vestige of reason besides the military. There should definitely have been some crazy fucks that went on killing sprees. They're clearly trying to focus attention and build a campaign.*

"If that's the case though, there should be someone from some division of the government trying to reach me…Why isn't there, yet? Well, any day now. Either I'm a monster to them or I'm a human amassing too much power in a society on the edge. Speaking of which, why won't it let me level past 49?"

Ri-ri-riiiing. Ri-ri-riiiiiing.

Ah.

"Hi Mom. Y'all good?"

"…Yes. What are you doing?"

"Amassing power, concocting plans, and perfecting methods. Why?"

"…*sigh* I'm just checking up on my child. Can't I do that?"

"Of course, but I'm not a child anymore. You should know that."

"You'll always be my baby."

"That's great, yada yada, how's Dad?"

"He's fine. His arm is almost fully operational again. The meds the medics gave have worked like a charm for pain relief."

"That's good. Tell him he's falling behind in levels. Soon enough, he won't be able to protect you."

"…sdsdssdsdsfdssdsss"

"He says then you'll just have to."

"Eh, y'all know I got stuff to do right? I gotta grow up and live my life even in this mess of a world. I can't always be worried about protecting you if I want to truly affect the world, which is why I asked Che to get y'all to the military."

"*sigh* Yes, Jone, we know. You know we support you finding your way, just less dangerously."

"Less dangerously? Running the line is the only way to the extremes, Mom. How's Sis?"

"We still can't contact her…she's probably-"

Her voice faltered.

"And if she is, she is, but there's no reason to think she is. Trust her as you're learning to trust me. I gotta go. Talk to you later.

"Oh, oka-"

*I need to kill them. If I don't, someone will while trying to fuck with me, or someone will in the chaos that is to ensue, or they'll want to kill themselves once they see how bestial shit gets when you take away amenities we're used to. I don't want to kill them though..."

"Eh, what am I saying? I can live with their disappointment at them feeling they don't know me, that I'm a sociopath, that they failed to raise me right. I'll still do this regardless; I'd just prefer they not get prosecuted for it, which I can't be sure of unless I protect them or kill them. I certainly can't trust the military unless…my name is erased from the records. If there are no records, then there'll be far less of an issue."

Ha-ha. HA-HA-HA. CAN THINGS BE THIS CONVIENT? My luck has to run out soon. CAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE TOO FUNNY!

Lira sat in his room laughing manically, the entire neighborhood around him already demolished; in its place, tens of orc camps spread out.

Now, the orcs were grey, and their skin seemed hardened. Finally, the entire place was covered in a strange mist that was a mix of green and gray.

…

A few hours later, something happened that would change the world.