On the way back to the fruit trees, I focused on the new skill and level up I had gotten by killing him.

 

Skill unlocked: Novice Punching
Level: 1 / 10
Type: Physical
Attribute: Any
Effects:
» +1.7% (0.1 + 1.6) damage to your punches

 

Skill level up: Novice Fist Fighting
Level: 2 / 10
Effects:
» When fighting weaponless:
    » +1.8% (0.2 + 1.6) physical attributes

 

TP received
+5 TP — Unlocked a skill
+1 TP — Leveled up a Novice Tier Skil
Total TP: 73

 

The new skill synergized nicely with my [Fist Fighting]. Most skills related to a weapon — or lack thereof — did the same. [Blade Thrust], for instance, synergized with [Sword Fighting].

Midway back, a rabbit crossed my path and I decided it would be useful. I was way faster and nimbler than it was, easily catching it.

When I reached the apple trees, I noticed most of the populace had left and only around one hundred people remained. I didn't care; they would return soon enough.

Few could live in the wild, even less so when fighting with no tools or protection against predators. Even [Awakeners] would only have a chance of triumphing in such encounters. Although they would be as strong as Iron Bull, most lacked fighting experience. Battling against wild predators, which had sharp teeth and claws, was easier said than done.

What I really cared about was that two of my warriors were also missing. I couldn't have that.

"I said before that rebellion shall be dealt with swiftly and lethally," I said when I arrived, attracting everyone's attention. "But I'm not completely unreasonable. The people who left today aren't ill intentioned, they just lack judgement. I'll accept them back at the sunrise of the third day. Until then, they'll have to fend for themselves in the wild and believe me, they'll come to regret leaving us. Let it be a lesson for them."

They didn't realize yet how brutal that ruling of mine was. It would be a lesson for all of them.

"On the other hand, I called my warriors, 'warriors' for a reason. Like in any army, deserting is punishable by death. The two warriors who deserted are to be killed on sight." The remaining warriors widened their eyes at those words. "Don't worry, you can always fill in for a discharge with a councilor. We'll just take the time to find a replacement before allowing it."

That calmed them a bit, but not enough. I swiftly changed the focus, throwing the dead rabbit at the foot or a random civilian. He stepped back, even more scared. I reached for an apple and took a bite.

"The Tower will respawn animals on the First Floor even if we destroy the environment. We should take care of it though, because plants don't respawn. Our new bodies won't grow sick from eating only meat, but a menu without variety can get old real quick. On the bright side, fruits in living plants do respawn. There shall be no famine on the First Floor unless we destroy everything and refuse to hunt the animals."

The First Floor would be paradise if it weren't for human nature.

"City planners, come and tell me where you decided to build the walls." I pointed at the dead rabbit. "I need a cook to cook it for me, weavers to make bags and clothing out of plants, fourteen more warriors..." I started.

These people were fed and had had time to acclimate to the Tower.

It was time they start working.

 

---

 

When I had enough tree trunks, I found a rock the size of my fist to use as a knife. I scuffed it against a larger rock until it developed something akin to an edge. Then, I used it to make both ends of the trunks pointy. One end to make the trunk fit better in the ground, the other to make it harder for people to climb over the wall.

Some trunks became mere drilling tools. They wore out quickly, but I had plenty of trees to replace them. The drills came first exactly because drilling damaged the trunk. When the holes were deep enough, I set down the trunks that would become the wall itself. Vines ran throughout every one of them, binding them to each other.

With effort, I put the last trunk down, run the vines around it, and sighed.

The perimeter the engineers decided on was larger than I judged necessary, but I didn't complain. I could build it and there was nothing else that demanded my attention.

For whatever reason, they wanted the wall to be hexagon shaped. Each side was about 400 feet long, for a total area of around 160 thousand square feet. It had the same area of two professional soccer fields, only in a different shape.

We were a hundred feet away from the river. The planners wanted to encompass some of the river into the wall, but I refused. Leaving such a glaring weakness to my defenses would be beyond stupid.

We compromised on secondary walls that went from the edges of one of the hexagon's side up to the river. That area would still be unsafe, but better than leaving my people to be easily slaughtered when going to the river. Or, worse, making it easy for enemies to cut our access to water.

There were two entrances to the village, one on the river side, the other on the opposite side. Both were three-man wide and had internal thirty feet long corridors leading to them. These corridors were built much like the wall, except I left small openings between each trunk so my people could attack invaders from relative safety. Much like murder holes from medieval towns, except less safe for the defenders.

Speaking of defending, I had found my fourteen warrior volunteers despite the anger I showed at the deserter. That pushed my warrior numbers to twenty and each of them was told to create a spear from themselves. Said spears were nothing more than long tree branches with pointy edges, but it was better than nothing for now.

I also ordered them to stockpile as many fist-sized stones as possible right inside the entrances, to act as ranged weapons. People usually underestimated how much damage rocks could do, but it wasn't pretty. It would also help scare wild animals away without putting my warriors into close-range danger.

They would need shields too, but that required finer craftsmanship, and I hadn't had the time to make it.

With twenty warriors to protect my village, I had to organize shifts. The days on the First Floor were 24-hour long, same as Earth. I created two shifts and assigned ten people to each one of them. That way, all of them would have some free time when the sun was up to keep their sanity. The Tower did not make humanity immunity to mental conditions. As with leaving the ranks of warriors altogether, if they wanted to change shifts, they only had to talk to a councilor.

The ten people in each shift was divided into four guards, one to each entrance, and two groups of three people. One group was to keep the peace inside the walls and act fast backup in case we were attacked. The other was to make rounds outside and act as an emmergency response in case our people were attacked by animal or human.

I would need to increase my warrior numbers sooner rather than later to hunt for food too. These I would aptly dub rangers. But today, I would rather let people have a vegetarian diet and stay relatively comfortable.

We had lucked out in that food aspect. One of my five scouts had found potatoes. There were no weather patterns on the First Floor, it was always lukewarm when the sun was up and chilly at night. Plants grew randomly and didn't care for either climate or geography, nor did the animals. It was perfectly possible to have saltwater fish appear on the river.

I would wait until the third day to see if Adam and Eve would order someone to try to make fish nets or use spears to fish. Or if someone else had the idea. Having a river at our disposal was great also because of that.

Adam and Eve were still out of their depth, but they were getting confident that I wouldn't explode their heads. When people asked me unimportant things, like how large should they make the bags I ordered them to, or if they could make clothes instead, I just told them to ask a councilor. When the councilors came to me for information, I told them to decide it themselves.

Of course, I wouldn't accept stupid decisions. I was testing them.

Take the bag question, for instance. They had to at least consider what we had that was worth carrying to begin with. They would arrive at the simple answer of fruits and stones. So, the bags had to be large enough to carry fruits and stones. They also had to be small enough that when filled, people could withstand the weight and the bags wouldn't tear apart.

The reasoning behind the tests was also simple. I would have to climb the Tower to grow stronger, which would also be useful to protect my territory. I would return constantly to check on my people and guide them in their quest for conquest, but the Tower had rules about it. When someone entered a Floor, they couldn't go back until they beat it. It would take months sometimes.

Training them in decision-making was the best thing I could do both for them and the general populace right now. And I couldn't just tell them what to do, such training had to be hands off. For in the future, they would face many unexpected situations that would require creative solutions.

Someone had built an enormous bonfire in the middle of the village and scattered other bonfires around. There were ten big plant-weaved bags filled with potatoes on the ground, beside a pile of wooden skewers. People were welcome to skew the potations and warm them by the fire to eat.

Many were sitting by the fire, talking. The air had cleared while I was laboring manually, my focus away from them.

I saw a mother breastfeeding a baby and heard her tell a friend she was worried that the baby hadn't pooped yet. That put a smile on my face; she hadn't realized yet. One of the wonders of the First Floor, one I sorely missed on the other Floors, was that this kind of organic waste didn't exist. Whatever we ate was either 100% used by our bodies or disappeared into the same void that had taken my excess fat away. Whatever the case, food was still required to survive.

That was all nice and wholesome, but I had a work to do, and it involved burning an image into the minds of them all.

I strolled towards the cook to whom I had given my rabbit. He had cleaned it with a rock knife I gave him and was now cooking it. The pelt, which was rightfully mine, was nowhere in sight, but I would let it go just this once.

The smell of the meat was delicious, filling the entire place, and plenty of people were looking at it with watery mouths.

When I got there, I extended my hand. "This is mine," I said loudly. Conversations stopped as almost everyone looked at me. "I hunted it."

The cook, a thirty-year-old almost as fat as I had been, gulped and gave it to me. I ripped a leg apart and gave it to him, who took it with shaking hands. For whatever reason, he was terrified of me, but still had been the only one to stand up and speak when I asked for cooks.

"This is your reward for helping me," I explained.

I took another leg for me and bit into the meat. It was dry and bland. I made faces as if it were the best piece of rabbit I had ever had.

This was important. They had to understand I got the best treatment simply because I could. I had hunted for the rabbit. I deserved it. My people wouldn't starve, the potatoes and apples were proof of it. But only those who worked for it could get the best stuff. Like the cook.

He clearly wasn't fat because of a thyroid disease, which would've been cured anyway. The guy was a food junkie. From the way he looked at the piece of meat, it might've been divine nectar. He devoured it with abandon, making an even bigger show of it than me, although he wasn't pretending. He finished it soon after and started licking the bones.

"Councilors," I said, looking around for Adam and Eve. They were talking in hushed tones beside another bonfire. When I called for them, they approached. I gave them one rabbit leg each. "For doing a good job."

Adam took it with gratitude, but Eve looked doubtfully at the piece of meat. I wouldn't force her to ever get something from me, but if she refused this important gesture of mine right now, she would be replaced. I was building an important moment with a powerful image, and messing with it would mess with my plans. I couldn't have a councilor that was that insensitive to the mood.

She made a resolved face, opened her mouth, and looked at my eyes.

"I..." she started. She would refuse, it was obvious. But whatever she saw in my eyes made her think twice. She breathed deeply. "I'm a vegetarian," she said in almost a whisper. "But I thank you for the reward." She reached for it with a clear repulse.

I almost smiled widely at that, but this was a serious moment and I didn't want to break the atmosphere. She was a smart girl and had just made the most important choice of her life, she just didn't know it yet.

"You're free to share it with whoever you want," I said deliberately.

In a few minutes, people who hadn't yet realized where the power lay would start courting favors with her. By accepting my gift of food, she had accepted an even greater gift of power, status and influence.

Her eyes widened, as if she had just realized it right then. I couldn't resist smiling a little at that.

"Ten people accepted my first call to become warriors," I shouted. "Two of them became Adam and Even, the First Man and Woman, my Head Councilors. Eight of them became my warriors. Of these, two deserted. Tonight, those two are sleeping outside, without the warmth of fire, the joy of companionship, or the safety of walls. As for the remaining six..." I raised what remained of the rabbit. "Come be rewarded for your loyalty. It won't be much, that's true, but it will be more than most here will receive today."

They came. If it was on a different occasion, I would have let them decide among themselves how to split the food. But today, I ripped the rabbit apart in equal portions — as equal as I could make it, at least — and gave it to them from my hand.

My hand was dirty, I hadn't washed after my work, but that was part of the image I wanted to ingrain on everyone's mind too. The leader who was dirty and sweaty for working in building people their wall was now personally giving the loyal ones a share of his previous work, the rabbit he had hunted himself.

The two deserters were men, so four of the six were women. They showed a lot more enthusiasm than Eve, although one of them looked with disgust at my hands. Not at the meat though. She ate it before someone could try to steal it from her.

After the rabbit meat was gone, I gave the badly cleaned bones to the cook so he could make soup or something of the kind. Then, I turned to give a few last orders but found a female nearby.

She was a warrior, but not one of those I had just fed. She was chubby and young, maybe eighteen. Her skin was light brown, her face was average, her eyes were dark brown, and her short hair was a curly black.

She held her spear to the side, resting its butt on the ground, and her eyes were filled with fiery determination.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I wanna [Awake]," she said.

'About fucking time,' I thought.