While the supervisors at the game company were living through indescribable chaos, Shaun stood in the middle of his new town, looking at it with eyes half-sunken behind a crimson glow that was starting to engulf everything.
[Congratulations, the first Lord in the world to upgrade the Region to Grade D!]
[New summons unlocked]
[Achievement Reward: Regional boundaries expanded by 100%]
[Global Lord Log Unlocked]
Notifications flashed, and with them, the global channel began to explode.
[Global][Lord_Kane]: What? Someone reached D? That's impossible after only 6 hours from the start!
[Global][Ivy_Rose]: Is it a server error? I barely upgraded my Region to Level 4!
[Global][z_oueta_01]: …Is he here too?
[Global][OldCode]: Impossible...
Shaun's eyes barely noticed the chaos. Their chaos didn't concern him. All he saw was his town "breathing." It was like a giant entity that had finally awakened from an eternal slumber. Pure black energy rose like vapors from between the newly constructed buildings, mixing with the fog to create a slowly moving veil that responded to his will.
[New Summon Unlocked: Shadow Archer]
[New Summon Unlocked: Dark Blacksmith]
He looked at the air in front of him, and two new windows appeared with a design he hadn't seen before. They weren't standard system interfaces, but etched with moving patterns resembling ancient magical seals.
The first window bore the silhouette of a slender figure, wearing a long cloak, with a thick bow.
[Shadow Archer – Ranged Unit]
[Attack: Depends on Darkness Power]
[Range: Very Wide, Accuracy increases in dark areas]
[Unique Skill: Arrow of Gloom (Upgradeable) – Pierces walls and extinguishes light sources upon impact]
[Summoning Requirement: 25 Pooled Magical Energy]
The second, an image of a huge, bare-chested man, with chains of black iron wrapped around his arms, and his eyes glowing like two embers buried in coal.
[Dark Blacksmith – Production and Maintenance Unit]
[Unique Skill: "Iron Breath" (Upgradeable) – Can use the Dark attribute to forge weapons of exceptional durability and powerful killing abilities!]
[Every weapon he forges gains a part of the Blacksmith's own skill and dedication.]
[You have a 5% chance to gain weapons of a higher grade than the Blacksmith's rank or the base materials used during the manufacturing process]
[Requirements: 40 Pooled Magical Energy]
Shaun felt the shadows around him tremble with eagerness. He opened his resources page. His magical energy reserve exceeded 700 points after the last "absorption" process. More than enough. But he didn't press the "Summon" button like an eager player. Instead, he sat on a black stone bench in the town square and rested his hand on his chin.
"Shadow Archer… and Dark Blacksmith…" he whispered to himself with a cynical smile, "What's next? A farmer who milks ghosts?"
Faint red magical circles began to form on the ground in front of him. He chose the "Dark Blacksmith" first. The ground cracked, and the huge ash man ascended from it, dragging a hammer nearly as big as himself. When he raised his face, thick black steam leaked from his mouth.
"My Lord…" his voice came like the roar of a burning furnace, "Where is my workshop? Give me the metal, give me the bone… My hands yearn for the pounding."
Shaun didn't reply, but simply pointed toward the storage yard piled high with the remains of the Black Wolves. Their fangs and claws were as hard as steel, perfect raw material. Shaun realized that the first summon of each type granted him a 'conscious hero,' so he asked for his name.
"My name… Duram the Iron."
"Duram" advanced toward the remains. He picked up a fang the length of his forearm, examined it with his thumb, then let out a low whistle. "Excellent hardness…." He turned to Shaun, "When these bones are smelted with iron, it gives it a cold, thirsty character. Suitable resources for slaughtering hundreds of its own kind."
Shaun swallowed silently. He immediately opened the system interface, and a new window appeared before him:
[New Project Unlocked: forge_001 — Dark Blood Furnace]
[Requirements: 200 Solid Stone, 100 Wood, 3 Liters of Blood from a Level 5 or higher entity]
[Estimated Construction Time: 3 hours]
In the global channel, messages continued to pour in non-stop:
[Global][SilverMoon]: This Lord's name is Evander, right? Is he a new player like us?
[Global][Null_00]: Wrong! Evander is a Beta Version player!
[Global][sHITTY]: ...Damn, I should have played the first beta version, the beta testers were transferred along with their cities already!.
[Global][G.ggh]: But aren't beta players supposed to have their own private server?
Shaun ignored those messages; he wasn't a beta player, so he didn't care.
Moments later, a new message appeared:
[First Dark Workshop is being constructed in the Region]
Shaun laughed very softly. Then he shifted his attention to the "Shadow Archer."
With a single click, a slender, featureless entity emerged from the ground. It slowly raised its head, its eyes forming from two glowing red points. It bowed, and Shaun felt a thread of cold air pass across his neck. This creature was sending shivers down his spine without even moving!
[Shadow Archer is ready for service.]
[Would you like to assign a watch location?]
Shaun pointed to the town wall, and as soon as he did, the entity merged into the wall as if it were smoke. From the outside, there was no trace of it, only a shadow longer than usual stretching on the ground.
This time, Shaun examined the new arrival's status window and discovered his name, Jerik.
[Name: Jerik]
[Type: Human Follower]
[Level: 1]
[Classification: Summoned Shadow]
[Profession: Shadow Archer (Novice)]
[Loyalty: 100%]
[Status: Calm – Stable]
[Personal Attributes]
Strength: 1.0
Intelligence: 1.2
Endurance: 2.3
Agility: 2.6
Vitality: 0.9
"Heh, just as I expected! Only the summoned heroes, I can see their stats," Shaun closed the window with a short sigh, a light smile full of curiosity on his face.
Shaun sat down again, watching the small lights that began to spread across the map of his town. "Seven days…."
Elsewhere in the world, specifically inside a small room in the basement of an old Chicago building, another player lay inside a glowing virtual reality capsule with tired eyes.
Ethan Crow.
He was one of the first to enter the game in the initial ten minutes, and thanks to his cousin who was a beta tester, he knew ways to grow that weren't announced in the forums! But today, things seemed completely different from what he was used to.
His in-game world was an endless expanse of frozen plains. "Damn it… resources are scarce, even wood is rare in this area."
He opened his build menu and found only three available buildings: Hunter's Hut, Primitive Sawmill, and an Ice Watchtower. But what truly bothered him wasn't the slowness, but the system itself. He had noticed for hours that the game was acting strangely.
And at that moment, a strange alert window appeared.