5. People Management
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Status
Name: Theodore McDonald
Power: Novice 16
Titles: Awakened — Precursor

Attributes
[TP: 60]
Physical
    Strength: 16 — Agility: 16 — Constitution: 16
Spiritual
    Pool: 16 — Regeneration: 16 — Control: 16
Social
    Charisma: 16 — Persuasion: 16 — Presence: 16

Skills
Physical
    Novice Fist Fighting — 1 / 10
Spiritual
    Novice Essence Sensitivity — 1 / 10
Social
    Novice Leadership — 1 / 10

 

Being 16 times as strong as an average person was nothing in the Tower. Most people would have 10 points to one attribute by the end of the week. Especially because of the Second Floor, which gave TP like water.

For now though, I was an unstoppable beast.

'Change name to Black Reaper,' I ordered the system in my mind.

 

Name change
You can only change your name once.
Are you sure you want to change your name to [Black Reaper]?

 

'Yes,' I thought.

Finally, I stood up and looked at everyone. Most had stopped reading the System Manual and looked scared my way.

"As I told you before, I am Black Reaper," I shouted. My voice made the few who were still reading stop. "I'll be your leader. If anyone disagrees, come and take a beating."

There were four hundred people there. If I had been my previous fatty self, one of them would've approached. None dared take a single step closer my new self though.

"Oh my goodness..." Eve whispered.

The way she spoke was full of awe. She whispered because she was breathless. Her pupils were dilated and other more physical signs of her arousal for me were clear for all to see. She wasn't the only one and wouldn't be the last. I was that perfect.

"No one wants to take a beating?" I insisted.

"What happened to you?" Someone asked, I couldn't see who.

"I [Awakened]." I said.

Showing knowledge was another way to cement my hold over them. I was physically powerful and had access to information they didn't. Knowledge was another kind of power.

I continued. "You need not worry about it yet. [Awakening] gives 5 points to all attributes, but it's only really important when an attribute reaches level 50. After that, for every point you put in it, you can die. Without essence, our bodies simply can't take more power. No matter how much potential humankind has been given, everything has limits.

"Carbon-based flesh beings like us can only grow so far without essence. Trying to grow our muscles being the limit will make them eat themselves. Trying to improve one's charisma beyond the peak will affect the very foundations of space and reality itself. It's possible if you hold essence within yourself, but without it, you be warped in horrific ways, twisted into beings only seen in nightmares. You'll die if you are lucky. You'll be crippled for life if you aren't.

"This is the truth for all attributes. The Tower has unlocked our potential but beyond a point, we need extra help from essence. In the future, we'll need classes too. For now, I give you the knowledge of [Awakening], free of charge, before all other humans get it at the Third Floor. For I consider you my people now, and I care for my own."

I looked around and found the stave I used lying on the ground. I took it and raised for everyone to see.

"To [Awaken], pierce your own heart with something and leave the object there. After you're dead, someone must take it off you. Nobody can do it for you. You can't remove the object before dying. When you're dead, you'll see a wisp of essence, it is the essence seed. Accept it, and you'll [Awaken]. It will be painful, but the result is the first step towards power you can't imagine."

Although they would all get information about it on the Third Floor, the chief reason I revealed it to them was what I just said. Someone needed to remove the stave off my heart. Even if I only brought Adam to a seclusive place, what happened was likely to spread and people would do it themselves. Better I be seen as the bearer of gifts than the one trying to hide beneficial knowledge from them.

"That's horrible!" A woman was the first to speak, then people started talking among themselves.

I couldn't allow things to get chaotic. I had things to accomplish before the three days were up and I needed to climb to get power ups, including a few titles for being the first of my race.

So, I started breathing deeply while focusing on the essence in the air in my lungs. I pushed it through spiritual pathways until it got to my throat. More specifically, to my vocal chords. Repeatedly, I did so, until I felt it was enough.

"Silence!" I bellowed.

I couldn't infuse my voice itself with essence for extra effect yet, but merely making myself capable of shouting much louder was enough for now. My voice was so loud it shook the people closer by a little. Everyone quieted and looked at me.

"I have [Awakened] and I got rewarded for being the first." No reason to lie, they would all be told being the first brought an extra reward on the Third Floor. "This means I'm sixteen times as strong as any of you. I'm also much more experienced in both fighting and leading," I said. I didn't even think of adding the bit about leadership until the very end. It came from my persuasion attribute. While I didn't know how that was relevant to make them submit, I had learned to trust my attribute-powered instincts. "I will accept no opposition to my rule. I'll be physical and decisive about it. I ask again, do anyone oppose me?"

While I awaited for a reply, I crouched to take a few pebbles not larger than my nails and stood back up. Then, I watched with extra attention, while pushing essence into my arm and shoulder.

"You're just..." Someone said. I turned my head fast enough to identify him while he spoke. "...bullying us because you got a head start-"

I threw a pebble at him. The average baseball pitch traveled at 50 to 60 miles per hour. The fastest ever had reached 105 miles per hour. While there was much more involved in how fast a ball could travel than sheer muscle speed and elasticity, I was sixteen times as fast as a human and I had experience throwing things with lethal intentions.

The average bullet could reach 1700 miles per hour. The pebble reached at least half that right after leaving my hand, as proven by the sonic boom from it going beyond the sound barrier. It disintegrated at once, incapable of withstand the air pressure.

Since the pebble was so small, the sonic boom it birthed wasn't too loud, comparable to someone swinging a whip in the air. But it made the man shut up.

"You're right," I said. "I'm abusing my power. But the day is young, feel free to pierce your own heart and come challenge me later. For now, you either submit or die." That was half a lie. I wouldn't hunt people down for leaving, but I also wouldn't accept open rebellion. "Just so you can compare yourself to me when you do it, what you just heard was me throwing a tiny stone faster than the speed of sound." I threw the other ones on the ground. "I recommend you don't try to overthrow me unless you can do that much."

That should be enough for a while, but I wanted to make the gap between us even more obvious. So, I opened my arms wide. "Anyone else?" I didn't wait for an answer. "Good. First, we need a defensive wall. There are plenty of wild predators around."

I walked towards one of the trees and people close to it got away from me. The tree wasn't a very thick one, about as thick as my now-impressive thigh. Crouching to lower my center of balance, I chopped. Using my arm.

Now, I didn't need to do that. Just pushing the tree with my extra strength would be enough. But I wanted to send a message.

And a message I did send.

Physics 101, what I remembered of it at least, said force was mass times acceleration. Tower Physics 101, on the other hand, said strength was also added to the equation somehow. No one knew how it worked exactly, but it did.

I had both the mass in my dense body and the strength in my muscles. So, when my arm moved, it moved.

It went through the tree, shooting some splinters far and wide.

I destroyed that trunk.

It started falling on some people, who screamed in panic, but I pushed it to lie on a nearby tree. Then, I looked at them, holding the tree with my arm bleeding, unbothered by it. I wasn't immune to splinters yet but that pain was nothing compared to what I had felt a few minutes ago.

"I'll gather the wood for the wall," I said, my voice sounding like a shout in the socked silence.

There was now even more awe in their faces than when my fat self resurrected with the body that was a mix of a supermodel and a weightlifter.

They were mine.

"Listen to me well. I don't need people needlessly wandering about. Like I said, there are dangerous animals out there." Another half lie. The Tower wouldn't spawn predators until midnight, but they didn't need to know that. "Stay where you are unless told otherwise, I'll organize our survival efforts. My eight warriors will walk in pairs to keep the peace. And let me tell you all, if my warriors tell you to stop doing something, you better stop, or you'll have a reckoning with me."

I made a pause to let the last words sink. I didn't need the warriors at the moment, but I would when I left to do my own things and it was good that the populace got used to them.

"If you think you saw something dangerous, yell and a warrior will check. Warriors, confirm the danger before calling me. My time is precious. Councilors, stay close in case I need you."

Another pause. Most people were standing still, although I could see the shadows of some on the back moving away. That was good. While I needed more people to get a spot with a source of water, feeding that many in the first day would be difficult.

Speaking of which. "I need five volunteers to scout the area. And I need engineers or architects to tell me where to build our village wall." I patted the tree trunk I was still supporting.

Organizing them would be a chore, but I was reaping the benefits already.

Five blue screens were floating in my vision. Even though they stacked over each other, it was already getting hard for me to focus on anything else.

 

Skill unlocked: Novice Essence Infusion
Level: 1 / 10
Type: Spiritual
Attribute: Control
Effects:
» +1.7% (0.1 + 1.6) easier to infuse essence in your body

 

I got that skill by pushing essence into my arm for the pebble throw.

 

Skill level up: Novice Essence Infusion
Level: 2 / 10
Effects:
» +1.8% (0.2 + 1.6) easier to infuse essence in your flesh

 

And the level up came from the way I infused essence in my throat to shout louder. The lower a skill's level, the easier it was to level up. Level one Novice Tier Skills were pathetically simple to improve. Well, at least for me, who knew what I was doing.

Case in point, I had leveled two others.

 

Skill level up: Novice Leadership
Level: 2 / 10
Effects:
» People are 1.8% (0.2 + 1.6) less resistant to becoming your subordinate

 

Skill level up: Novice Essence Sensitivity
Level: 2 / 10
Effects:
» +1.8% (0.2 + 1.6) easier to feel essence

 

Making some people accept my authority already improved the [Leadership] skill. And I couldn't move essence without feeling it, so it was expected that my [Essence Sensitivity] would improve as I used essence.

 

TP received
+5 TP — Unlocked a skill
+2 TP — Leveled up a Novice Tier Skill (x2)
Total TP: 67

 

Without extra bonuses for first times, unlocking skills gave little TP. Leveling them up at the Novice Tier only earned me 1 TP. Good thing was that I knew plenty of skills and how to both unlock them consistently and level them up efficiently.

"I'm an engineer," a man said, taking my focus from my skills.

He gulped and stepped forward.

I smiled.

 

Last edit: 05/26/2020

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