Immersed in the simulated world that of which I had been dumped in by the system, the days flew by. On the first day, I had found out most of the ground rules regarding this odd trial of sorts, and the many restrictions imposed on the world. One of those being the uncomfortable reality of the little birdcage that was the village I found myself caged inside.

 

So, I had been grumbling for most of the day about that and the utter lack of information provided by the system as to how the hell I was to go about this stage. I mean, it could've at least given me a rulebook, right?

 

But by the end of the day, I discovered that I hadn't been so thorough with the initial inspection of each building. Once inside one of the residential buildings, I figured that I could, in fact, interact with the village as a whole through an interface of menus and other managing options currently available.

 

While not a rulebook, this settlement interface gave me a whole lot more information and a direction to go on than just winging it and trying to figure everything out on my own.

 

By the end of day three, I had gained a comprehensive understanding of how everything worked. From food gathering to increasing the population. Everything was very straightforward like any other game, without the innumerable nuances of real life.

 

For example, when going out to hunt, the apparent skill sets and powers of the puppets assigned to that role didn't really matter. No matter the time of the day, or any other circumstance, if I sent out two tier-4 strigoi puppets, they would come back after a set amount of time with a set amount of food. The same every time.

 

It was quite an odd sight when I first sent out one of the strigoi to hunt in the forests coating the mountainsides and only he returned with the corpse of a furry animal that was barely larger than a medium-sized dog after literally six hours of hunting. Knowing that this strigoi alone possessed the skills and attributes to quite literally pick the entire mountain clean of wildlife within a day or two. Bringing back just one small animal home wasn't exactly what I had been expecting.

 

Essentially, there were only two types of physical resources. Food and materials, all counted in units. And from the village interface, I knew that a tier-4 strigoi assigned the role of hunting produced exactly 0.12 units of food per hour hunting. This was affirmed once the strigoi stored the prey in the food storage which immediately ticked our entire stock of food from 1 unit of food to 1.72 units of food.

 

Realizing this stage of the trials was obviously a numbers game to a certain extent, I quickly set out to make the village work as effectively as it possibly could. From a variety of structures to build that would boost certain aspects of the settlement to assigning the correct roles to the correct people so that the settlement would grow the quickest, I began micromanaging everything just like I did with any other old strategy game that I did back on Earth.

 

The days went by, day 4, day 5, day 6. The settlement grew, and I kept experimenting and attempting to find any possible way to exploit this trial so that I would be the one to emerge victoriously and return home to those still depending on me. Everything was going well from what I could see.

 

But on the seventh day, things took a turn for the worse.

 

***

 

I walked out into the sunlight from the newly-built sturdy garrison that I now used from managing the village's interface. A deep-set frown was on my face.

 

For some reason or another, a hunting party of six fourth-tier strigoi had not returned, an entire hour late. That of course wouldn't have caused me all that much concern normally, but in this simulated world, that was not something that happened - at all. There usually never were any time deviations beyond maybe a minute or two.

 

Unless this world suddenly began adhering to common logic, something was very, very wrong.

 

That concern proved to not be unfounded only an hour later.

 

Watching the crimson golems moving about in between the mindless villagers with various tasks relating to their assigned roles, I occasionally took manual control of the constructs.

 

I had been initially surprised by the fact that I could still very well summon my blood puppets in this simulation. Although they were curiously enough still imposed with the odd limitations of being set within certain tiers like any of the other people of the simulations, including the set amount of blood puppets I could summon had been drastically diminished due to the limitation of settlement population capacity, they gave a definite leg up in the growth of the settlement as producing additional workers and fighters was a costly endeavor of food which was entirely too limited.

 

But during my admiration, the event of something I had been expecting finally happened.

 

A crackle, like that of the air splitting apart and the ruckus thundering of an explosion, boomed at the walls bordering the one pathway that snaked up the mountain.

 

In a flash, I was in the midst of a cloud of dust and rubble, scowling as the wall I had recently invested enough resources to upgrade to the next tier, to one of sturdy oak and thick stone reinforcements, now sported a head-sized hole in it. Cratered just as if a small meteor had struck it on the side and gone straight through.

 

The wall was not the only victim. The hut behind it, now barely standing, too was hit by whatever had ripped itself through the wall. Now claiming its end destination in the rubble and torn-up ground. I didn't need the screen of dust and debris to lessen for me to know that the destruction had been caused by some a large rock. It's shattered remains having gotten scattered all over the inside of the tottering hut.

 

With a grunt of irritation escaping my pursed lips, I jumped onto the frame of the wall surrounding the settlement. There, I was met with the sight of the offenders.

 

Huge, muscular, and lined with dark and long patches of fur running up and down their hammer-like arms and trunks for legs. Broad and squared face, and with a stumped nose, they all had a face only a mother could love. With the short mane of dark fur as opposed to hair creasing their head and leaving their face clear, it completed the look.

 

I wanted to say it was a mix of a gorilla, a chimpanzee, and a human. Quite odd, but undoubtedly true nonetheless. From their long monkey arms and tree-trunk-like forearms that continued into huge hands with thick fingers, to their slightly hunched postures.

 

The only discrepancy, however, was that two of the leading gorilla-like beastkins sported not simply one pair of arms, but rather two sets. And that was not also including their much larger size and frame, compared to their two-armed brethren.

 

There were eight in total, six of the smaller ones, and two of the much larger four-armed ones. But even with the two seemingly similar four-armed gorilla men, there was a difference distinguishing the two. One was slightly bigger, and the finely-made clothes and gleaming armor on its person showed clear superiority and seniority.

 

I took all of these facts in within the blink of an eye, and luckily I didn't need more time than that to judge the situation as another six head-sized rocks were hurtling towards the wall and me.

 

I could only curse internally as I tried to mitigate the damage as much as possible. But being unable to step outside the bounds of the settlement gravely hampered what I could stop from hitting the wall, so I could only try my best to at least reduce some of the damage that would be done.

 

With my quick reaction, I managed to summon three blood spikes in time that burst from my hand to crash into three of the rocks.

 

Although that would not stop the hail produced by that, it would alleviate some of the force behind the attacks. Other than that, I could only block the two other rocks directly heading for me with my full strength and watch as the crumbled rocks and one intact crash into the wall, causing mayhem from whatever it tore through inside the settlement.

 

Shock briefly appeared in my face as I used my forearms crossed to brunt two of the rocks, realizing they were no ordinary rocks, but almost as sturdy and heavy as raw iron ore. Luckily, that was no problem for my inordinately resilient body, but now it made much more sense why those small rocks managed to wreak such havoc on the upgraded walls.

 

Seeing that the gorilla men were all readying for another volley, this time the two four-armed gorillas joining in with rocks three times the size of those that the smaller two-armed gorilla men throw, I readied myself.

 

I needn't however, as my forces had already arrived.

 

Swallowing the surrounding and ground beneath, the shadows coalesced all around the attackers. Before they had time to react, the red glare of something deadly sharp flung towards one of the hulking gorillas.

 

Accompanied by the one unseen attacker, there was another, and another, and another.

 

Sixteen strigoi and twenty-eight fourth-tier blood puppets set down upon the artillery firing attackers, their weapons of blood coated with the flowing tendrils of shadow.

 

But contrary to what I had been expecting from the gorillas, they seemed only slightly perturbed by all of this, but not surprised in the slightest at their own shadows suddenly turning against them.

 

"They had been expecting it." I realized, surprised at the show of intelligence from the puppets.

 

"Well, at least I'm sure what happened to my hunting party..." I muttered grimly to myself, watching as the gorilla men backed up and launched retaliating attacks.

 

It was obvious from how they moved away, that they were retreating, seemingly having accomplished what they wanted. As I watched, I could only scowl with no hint of victory, despite the gorillas having to sacrifice two lesser men for their escape.

 

This was especially so after witnessing the lead four-armed gorilla annihilating one of my blood puppets with a single back-handed swat of its massive hand.

 

-Codex!-

 

"Goddammit..." I cursed internally. "Whoever this beastkin belongs to, they have the means to produce a fucking officer."