Chapter 124 – A confusing set of brothers.
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"Lord, you have returned. Welcome back," a young man's voice says nearby.

Jack looks towards the voice where he spots Cedric, "Cedric?"

"Yes Lord, I am Cedric."

"Which?"

"I have newly arrived this morning, I am the third youngest brother."

"Umm, that's a weird feature of the city heart," Jack says while confirming all the details are the same for this young man, "where's the oldest one at?"

"He is helping with work on the outside, should I call him?"

"No need, I need to check something else," Jack says while walking towards the door away from the now updated map with a much larger section of the forest cut out, "good work on the work so far."

"Thank you for your praise Lord, please inspect the items we have acquired in the storage building."

Jack nods his head in response while walking out of the building and onto a gorgeous town square with a large fountain in the middle spouting out incredibly clear and beautiful water which Jack runs his hand through it adjusting to this different reality while maintaining the second link stuff.

Five large building have been placed already, the city hall, the city heart, the dormitory, the workshop and finally the storage which is the largest of the five already built yet if you look inside them closely they're all just big empty buildings, further away are the foundations for some houses but no work has been done on them alongside some pathways laid out roughly. It's amazing progress for a small group of people without anything to help them haul large goods yet it is a strange group of people, it would be incredibly strange if they were all Cedrics.

Jack walks over to the city heart building enclosed in a thick layer of wood, there aren't any windows in the building cause it to cast out a dark blue colours, he places his hand on it after noticing no change with the information beyond increased population.

<'SYSTEM NOTIFICATION - Special Event: Free travel is active, return to system city for redemption, you have <1> token, would you like to travel?'>

"This should bring up a menu but it's only giving me yes or no options…, White you usually have an idea when the system is confusing me."

'Master, this will teleport you to the nearest system city. An extension of the prior travel regime, it seems they made an excuse to extend it.'

"So it's just going to the system city like those previous times?"

'Yes Master.'

"Why are the borders so confusing?," Jack laments as he thinks this over once more.

'The new resident population is being strictly controlled, this is the first piece of freedom they're being granted and they wish to see results before allowing free movement. Master needs to remember how strong the average player city will be compared to the average player.'

"True, plus player respawn so it's not exactly fair if the people don't care about their stuff but the player city will…," Jack says with solemn tone,"well then it's a good thing for the demon invasion disguising the location of the village."

'Master may remember Mistress Katya's words.'

"Right, lots of strong people are going to the region…," Jack's gaze turns focused as he selects yes on the prompt before him.

A black portal space shimmers into existence over the crystal heart, he immediately steps through without a second thought as he's not needed in the new village for anything at the moment and he needs to explore the system city.

Most importantly though, he needs to return back to his home region.

The sensation of falling comes over Jack's body as he steps through the portal, feeling the effects wash over his body he closes his eyes as he prepares himself for the landing concentrating on feeling the direction he needs to land in yet, when he opens his eyes up…

"What?!? White! Explain!," Jack yells out as he looks at the forest around him, nothing like the system city he was expecting to arrive at.

'Master, your location has shifted. Congratulations.'

"You know what I'm talking about, what am I doing here? This is the middle of no where and I was still helping set up that village, is this even the same region?"

'This region is 5 away from the previous, 11 away from the home region Plains of Sorrows.'

"Why am I here? Can I return to the previous place?"

'Master can return any time, he owns the previous village.'

"That's not what I mean," Jack says while looking around at the strangely familiar looking trees and plants.

'This unit is unable to give Master an answer as to when they will be able to return to the previous region, this unit is sure that Master will not wait very long until that time.'

"Where am I then?," Jack asks as his eyes flash with energy restarting a process he once hoped to not have to repeat.

'This region is called Vale of Gales due to a strong wind constantly blowing from the nearby mountain, this region is high in wind qi and energies making it difficult to settle down on.'

Jack looks through the holes in the forest and spots some distant landmarks such as the looming mountain that is visible from his home region and the high ridge surrounding him as the depression in the land extends for as far as the eye can see. The forest around him seems incredibly familiar yet he cannot quite place his finger on what makes it seem familiar, it's just tree and shrubs that look the same everywhere.

"Where's the nearest city then?"

'421 kilometres to your north.'

Jack turns his body around to face north, "This way?," he says when a tall tree nearby catches his eye causing him to create a pathway towards it.

'Yes Master, the other city is 590 kilometres to your south.'

"I see, what happened to my equipment and storage rings?"

'They were left behind upon your initial teleportation. The items that were stored in your internal space prior to to conversion were used up in the conversion process.'

"So it's all gone? I have nothing?"

'Yes Master.'

Jack lets out a sigh, "I should have checked the storage prior to teleporting, who could tell that I'd end up here though," he says while walking towards the large tree with no response from White. He runs his hand along the rough tree trunk trying to find something special about the tree itself yet it seems completely normal, the system doesn't even come up with information about it.

The young man spends several dozens of minutes clearing a large space around him and looking at the tree again, this time his eyes sparkling with power as he looks at the ground around the large tree causing it to fall over and remain intact crashing on the ground loudly.

Jack walks up to the giant log looking all around him and touches it, the giant log disappears from before him revealing the other side.

"You—

—CREECH!"

A black fuzzy silted creature with two illusory figures above it's large crocodile-like mouth filled with teeth roars and then strikes at Jack from the small distance.

Jack uses bunny dash twice to arrive far away from the creature, he looks at the two marks on the ground where he was standing. Each of those strikes could have killed him, especially when he has no defences or weapons at the moment to intercept the strike, not that he could see the strike travelling towards him.

He wastes no time in deploying Bridging-the-Stars against this foe, his eyes sparkle with a purple line of power through them as the lightning energy is delivered on the spot the creature is standing.

*ZZT*

An electrical sound hits the creature and expands in the nearby region, the seemingly ignores that as it kicks off the ground launching itself towards Jack.

Jack uses bunny dash once more but finds himself out of room as the creature gets closer causing him unable to focus on it, the illusory tails above its head flicker.

He uses bunny dash to launch himself to the side narrowly avoiding a strike that lands where he was, Jack immediately launches himself another direction using bunny dash but it's not good enough as he gets struck on stomach knocking him off course.

Jack groans in pain but forces himself correct mid-air and lands on his feet pressed up against some trees, the creature lands nearby snarling at him.

"What are you?," Jack asks trying to act calm, his eyes sparkling.

*ROOOAR*

Jack forces the power to flow through sending another shock to the creature, the bright blast of lightning appears where the creature is standing and disappears into the air.

The creature is remaining standing without moving before falling out only a moment later, the creature falls over with its body being consumed by a black flame.

An item remains after the flames leaves, a familiar item.

A treasure chest.

"What the hell… White?"

'Master, congratulations. You have acquired regional reward chest number 3.'

Jack takes a deep breath, "Why have I acquired it?"

'You defeated the creature.'

"What cre—

<You have defeated lesser future region beast 'Immature Veiled Vostian Stilted Beast', you have been granted a special treasure chest containing a special item due to this heroic deed.>

'SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT -  You have slayed one of several immature regions beasts plaguing this region, you must seek out all the children of the corrupted…'

Jack looks at the treasure chest before him, "So it's Vostian this time? What's the difference?"

No reply.

Jack sighs at his situation, he feels a subtle feel of manipulation behind the scenes yet he's not even able to question those things, he reaches down and touches the chest causing an item to appear in his palm.

A city creation stone, much the same colour as the last one.

Jack places it down on the ground where he stands causing the city heart to throb into life clearing out the immediate space of the remaining trees, several figures appear from the orb and crouch before him.

"Lord," they announce in unison.

Jack looks at one of their information,

Name: Roger Roger Sidrock

Grade: A

Title: None

Profession: [Stage 1 Resident]

Race: Human - Unknown Aquatic Bloodline

Age: 19 (80)

Loyalty: 100

Stats: Strength: 11, Intelligence: 20, Constitution:11, Agility: 24

Cultivation: Stage 1-2

Cultivation Technique: None

Skills: Water manipulation, Water temperature manipulation…

Equipment: Cloth clothing....

"Are you all named Roger?"

"Yes, My lord," the announce as one.

"Alright, which of you is the oldest?"

"Me, Lord!," one of them stands up, their boring facial feature are nothing to speak about.

"Ok you're in charge, I'll be back in a few weeks to check on your progress."

"Yes Lord!," Roger yells as though he's overly excited.

Jack looks at the city heart before touching it, the information comes up;

Village Name: Vestian Outer Forest Village (Epic)

Level: Primary (0/500)

Village Area: 1.1 square kilometre

Residents: 8/150

Soldiers: 0/68

Popular Support: 100

'Village Special Stats: Crop Output +20%, Crop Growing Time -10%, Population Limit +10%, Population Attraction +10%, chances of attracting higher grade population +10%, Pest resistance +30%, Toxin Resistance +50%, Generate 1 unit of Sacred Spring water per day.'

<'SYSTEM NOTIFICATION - Special Event: Free travel is active, return to system city for redemption, you have <1> token, would you like to travel?'>

Jack selects 'Yes' causing the giant portal to open up, he looks out at the newly spawned people.

"I expect great things, Cedric already has the first layer of their village set up," Jack says before jumping into the portal which immediately closes behind him.

"Lord is gone, what did he say when he left?," one of the Rogers speaks up.

"He said something about a village layer, is it his other village?"

"Didn't you feel his power level, lord has more than one village."

"He didn't have his original village weapon on him though, we cannot tell how strong he is. We have to work hard to bring glory to Lord."

"Didn't he say something about Cedric?"

"Cedric? Younger brother? Why would Lord mention him?"

"Lord said that, Cedric already has a village then he said something about layers."

"Cedric already has a village? Well we cannot let him show us up, quick get to work!"

The place scrambles into a flurry of activity as they being to construct buildings out of wood, Jack doesn't know any of this but it's not important as he looks out at the scene before him.

...

"White… why am I teleporting into random forests?"

No response.

"I'm going to assume you have something to do with it if you don't respond."

'Master, this unit can not say why you are teleporting to these locations.'

"You don't know or you cannot say?"

No response.

"Will it always happen?"

'No.'

"I see. What do I need to do to get it to stop?"

'Master simply needs to continue his progress.'

"Fine," Jack says while cutting down the nearest trees with his eyes, "where are we now?"

'3 regions away from the last, Seabreak jungle.'

"Why's it called that?"

'The region is unlike the others providing a sea level jungle compared to the temperate forest of the rest of the central continent island. That gives it the jungle moniker.'

"Seabreak though? I don't see the ocean…"

'The giant river mouth is directly fed by the ocean, the inward flow is broken by the land.'

"Well we're nearing the water and we're always short of it at the main village so let's hope we continue to teleport towards it," Jack mutters while continuing his work knowing that White will not tell him much more.

A large section of trees disappear revealing a giant one, this one with rough yet ancient looking skin like the others, there's no explanation for what this thing is other than the brief explanation that comes from the system when it's struck down and even then it's not about the tree itself. If Xueli were awake then she'd probably explain what these creatures are more clearly yet the dumb little dragon is still asleep, the giant tree comes down with a flash of energy below it.

Jack jumps on top of the trunk using bunny dash and looks around for a moment, there's nothing to see except normal jungle with some distant animal sounds. There's no signs of the stilted beast yet this tree trunk is clearly one attached to them, he jumps down and looks behind him confirming the large space. The wounds over his body have been temporarily sealed yet their pain is just one of many his body naturally has at the moment.

He touches the tree trunk, it disappears as soon as he touches it revealing the furry and fuzzy beast.

*ROOAR*

Jack looks up at the top of the creature, three illusory objects are hovering above it.

"Alright, let's go,"Jack says as his eyes flash once causing the lightning to engulf the space the creature is standing.

It lets out an angry roar as it leaps forward, Jack uses bunny dash to leaps backwards twice.

"Shit," Jack says as he leaps sideways several times, each time closely followed by a strike on the ground. Each strike coming closer and closer to him, Jack runs out of space to run and stops his steps, the creature stops nearby.

Jack launches another strike and leaps away, the strike launches into the creatures body from beneath and enters the atmosphere but the creature seems unharmed as it lets out another roar and follows after him.

Jack grits his teeth, he's being closely followed and with his bridging-the-stars at this stage, he's not able to target this creature while its moving, a strike of its tail leaves a wound in Jack's leg as he's jumping, he's unable to land or launch off properly limiting the effectiveness of bunny dash.

A strike hits his back cutting his jump even shorter, the creature is close to him and launches out two strikes at once.

Jack quickly launches himself in a random direction but finds himself cornered as the strikes hit his body unable to ignore it.

He attempts to land on the ground but finds himself tumbling across the ground, coming to an abrupt stop as the creature stands above him, it roars at him attempting to eat him.

Jack reaches out with his hand and finds a giant figure of a hand coming out and crushing it almost drowning Jack in its blood, the giant hand disappears as Jack realises what he's doing causing the clump of flesh to fall down on top of him.

He rolls his body a few times but the blood is sticky leaving him to get crushed beneath the almost spherical remains of the fuzzy creature.

The body begins to burn with the strange black flame that leaves Jack unharmed as he sits up after being uncovered exhausted from that brief skirmish. His body much more hurt compared to the last ones but they have been increasingly getting harder.

Jack recovers himself as he watches the flames burn away into a treasure chest, a familiar treasure chest.

"White."

'Regional treasure chest number 2.'

"Am I going after number 1 next?," Jack says without care as he leans down.

'No Master, number 1 cannot be triggered until the broodmother has awoken.'

"Oh," Jack says this is the first information he has received, "when will that be?"

'This unit does not have an exact time frame.'

Jack touches the chest causing a stone to appear in his hand, he places it down on the ground causing everything to repeat itself as several people step out of the city heart.

"Lord."

Jack looks over them,

Name: Michael Michael Sidrock

Grade: A

Title: None

Profession: [Stage 1 Resident]

Race: Human - Unknown Aquatic Bloodline

Age: 21 (83)

Loyalty: 100

Stats: Strength: 15, Intelligence: 22, Constitution:18, Agility: 32

Cultivation: Stage 1-3

Cultivation Technique: None

Skills: Water manipulation, Water temperature manipulation…

Equipment: Cloth clothing....

"Michael this time eh, which one of you is the oldest?," Jack says while looking over the kneeling men.

A young man raises his hand nervously, "Me. I am."

"You'll be in charge," Jack says.

"What me, no. I cannot be leader," the man says.

"Well you are."

"I can't though."

"Does anyone else want to be leader?," Jack asks the crowd yet after a moment no one has even moved a single muscle, "looks like you're it."

"No way…"

"You are nothing like Cedric and Roger."

"Oh younger brothers? They were always trying to be better than us…"

"Michael older brother, we cannot let them show us up."

"True Michael, we cannot let them show us up, we cannot be the ones to let down elder brother."

"Michael, let's show those younger brothers what an elder brother truly means before elder brother shows up."

"Yes good idea, let's show them, you should lead up Michael."

"Ok, I'll lead us to beat younger brothers," the standing up Michael says before turning back to Jack, "Ok I will be the leader."

Jack frowns, "You want to be leader now?"

"Yes Lord."

Jack thinks it over for a moment before nodding, "Ok, you have full loyalty so I'll trust you for now, you need to create a city yourself ready for more people to arrive."

"Yes Lord. We have studied for years to ensure perfection."

"Fine, I'll trust you for now," Jack says before touching the city heart, "I'll be back soon to inspect your work, make sure you prepare for the future," Jack says before disappearing through the black portal.

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