"How odd..." I thought with my chin in my hand as a pensive expression creased my brow. "They're really of the same race as me, and they all somehow already possess the power of my blood within their bodies."

 

Closing the status window as I finished inspecting the about a dozen figures gathered before me and some of the individuals milling about the ramshackle village, I tried to make sense of everything going on and the things that kept turning out which were completely out of place.

 

First, the people of this village were all of the race, either Strigoi or Strigg. Actually, it was only the four at the forefront of the dozen individuals silently standing at attention before me who were Strigoi, while the others were all Strigg. But from the incredibly similar appearance and difference in power signature of either race, it was easy for me to put two and two together.

 

The Strigg were obviously the predecessor to the Strigoi in the Shaar lineage. Or at least, the Stagia clan of the Shaar lineage from what Lord Nosferas had explained to me about my race.

 

This first stage of the Trials had very clearly been molded after me despite the irregularities and weird circumstances of everything. Mostly because this village was very primitive in nature, except for the well-made wall surrounding it, and from what Nosferas had told me, the Shaar was a noble and haughty race of monsters that had cities and palaces that Ebongrave couldn't even begin to dream of being compared with.

 

So the contrast from that image the ancient race gave me to the roughspun clothes they wore and thatch-roofed huts gave a deep impression of the system having built some simulation of sorts.

 

Secondly, what had initially made me do a doubletake when reading through their statuses, were their names and levels. Surprisingly, everyone I could see from where I stood had a name, but not like you would expect. From my guesses, it appeared that they simply bore the name of whatever role they were assigned. So those strongest, the Strigoi, all bore the name of 'Warrior'. Whereas the weakest of the village, the Strigg, all bore the name of 'Worker'.

 

But besides just the odd naming convention applied to these seemingly mindless puppets, their levels were also completely out of the ordinary. Rather than having any obvious indication of their level, it simply stated their evolution tier. Also, from looking at their stats, all of those who shared a tier, regardless of gender and physical appearance, had the very same stats.

 

It made me wonder how exactly they progressed if that was the case.

 

"Do they even gain experience?" I wondered.

 

Lastly, was the village in itself. The more I looked around and scrutinized the buildings, the more it became apparent that it lacked a lot of things that were essential for any type of village or small town to function. Virtually, the whole village was only made up of three different types of buildings.

 

Food storage, material storage, and houses.

 

Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Gaining an inkling of whatever the hell was going on, I redirected my attention back to the still silent dozen figures in the middle of the village.

 

"Hmm," I hummed to myself as I thought of something to say.

 

"Move to the side." I tried finally, not really expecting anything to happen as talking with them had previously proven unfruitful.

 

But lo and behold, the Strigoi who I had spoken to, took a step to the side without batting an eye.

 

"Leadership, huh?" I muttered, remembering that one prompt I saw before I was sent to this place.

 

By now, I was starting to form a pretty convincing idea as to what was going really going on.

 

"What's your name?" I asked next to the same to obeyed my first order.

 

No response.

 

I frowned, scrutinizing the Strigoi a bit closer. But even asking him again or any of the others didn't work, so I quickly gave up on the hopes of two-way communication.

 

Next, I tried giving them commands all at once, which was very successful. I simply had to direct my intent at them all simultaneously, and they would heed my command if they could hear it.

 

Further testing proved that they could easily take complex commands, but I also found out that there were many restrictions to what they could actually do.

 

For example, I couldn't take a long grass fiber and order one of them to tie a simple knot. Even if I showed them exactly how multiple times. That also applied to many other odd things that would've otherwise clearly have been within their skillsets in consideration of their other capabilities. Both intellectually and physically.

 

With my testing of commands concluded, I moved on.

 

The village population counted to sixteen in total, four of those being Strigoi, the rest worker Striggs, with the gender variation being a clean fifty-fifty split down the middle. After having taken stock of my odd and uncanny circumstances within the village, including the nearly empty storage huts, of which were one of each, I wanted to scout out the surroundings of the village.

 

As I approached the only opening in the walls, the surroundings I could see peeking over from the walls made a lot more sense.

 

We were in the middle of a vast and endless mountain range with a sea of peaks stretched out in every direction. Surprisingly, our settlement was located directly on the top of one of these mountains, whose peak seemingly had been completely shaven off to accommodate our village.

 

"Yeah... that's not normal," I muttered to myself with a sideways smile.

 

But as I tried to walk through the opening in the walls surrounding the settlement, I came to a startling conclusion that had just sent me on my ass.

 

"What the-?!" I held my head where it had just bumped into something invisible.

 

It didn't actually hurt, of course, but it was more a reflex as I rubbed where I had been unceremoniously headbutted. 

 

Getting to my feet, I walked back to the opening, stretching my hand out until I felt something hard and immovable stop it. Shocked, as it appeared that there was some invisible wall keeping me from walking out, I tried to put my strength into my hand. Pushing as hard as I could.

 

But no matter what I did, not even with the attacks of my blood shaped into claws, I couldn't do anything to the invisible walls. Slightly panicked, I also tried flying out, but that was entirely unsuccessful as well. At least this time around having expected it not to work, I made sure to try it carefully, as not to fly into the wall like a bird into a window.

 

From what I could feel out by going all around the village, there was some kind of dome surrounding it, keeping me in. Somewhat calmed down from the surprise of finding out I was a prisoner in this settlement of mine, a stray thought crossed my mind.

 

I cast a glance at one of the puppets still absentmindedly tracing circles on its stomach with its hand and doing the same on the top of its head just in reverse with synchronized motions.

 

"Come over here," I ordered, which summarily made the female Strigoi puppet walk over.

 

"Step outside," I tried, watching intently as she followed my command without hesitation.

 

And just like I had guessed, she walked easily out of the walls of the settlement, not hampered at all. Like I unfortunately was.

 

"Huh, I can only act on my proxies in this stage?" I wondered to myself, curious how the intricacies of how these Trials would work. "I mean, it did say; leadership... so it at least makes 'some' sense..."

 

Ordering the puppet back inside, I looked back into the village with a pensive expression reemerging onto my face. I had tested out the things I wanted to do but was now at a loss as to what I should be doing. About an hour had passed since I woke up in this village; simulation or whatever. But what the system wanted me to do besides getting those relics, I didn't really know, and even that I did not know how to do at the moment.

 

As I scanned the few workers milling about, whose actions seemingly did nothing really and were pointless in nature, I spotted something very odd.

 

One of the female workers was going about her day with a slight lump on her stomach.

 

"Huh?"

 

I was adamantly sure that none of the eight female puppets had been pregnant when I first tallied them up, at least not at that stage of pregnancy. Walking over and making sure she was indeed pregnant, not just fat, I could feel the small aura of life emanating from her stomach.

 

Not just that had changed, however, which I noticed when I caught the storage hut that held food in the corner of my eye. It took me a few moments to realize what was different about it, but it quickly came to my attention that the few lumps of meat that had laid unceremoniously on the ground inside, were entirely gone. Not a trace left.

 

Then my speculations had finally and unquestionably been affirmed.

 

I had a nagging suspicion ever since I figured out I could order the mindless puppets around, but that reality had been too outrageous for me to think actually possible. But now, it had to be exactly that, no doubt about it.

 

"I've been dumped into a god's damned real-time strategy game... haven't I?"