It was inextricably eerie to explore ancient ruins and discover that the inhabitants were more technologically advanced than those in my old world. The entire fort was constructed from advanced machinery. Smart screens still lit up after a hundred thousand years, but the physical machinery, which still hadn’t rusted, couldn’t move because plants, dirt, and water had destroyed the joints. The area was originally white, with massive semi-circle buildings that were at least four stories tall, each with biometric access pads. It didn’t help much, given that humans and beasts had rammed through the doors during battles, but the technology once existed. Now, the white buildings and doors were covered in vines and other terrible plants, some of which were poisonous.

  I stopped Tyler, afraid he'd trigger a trap.

  “What?” he asked.

  I ignored him and said, “Lithco. First off—what the hell is this? That book you sold me didn’t say jack about the Jacksmore army being a technologically advanced civilization.”

  “Nor did the book say the opposite,” Lithco said, appearing behind me and walking forward. “It simply avoids the topic, as it’s irrelevant.” He motioned to the devastation wrought by third-evolution beasts. “All that technology and they ended up picking up swords again.”

  I smiled grimly. “I kinda get it, but it’s still weird that they built… this in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Where were they supposed to live? In lean-tos?”

  My smile turned wry.

  “Hey, can you stop talking to your guide alone?” Tyler asked. “It’s creeping me out.”

  I silently clapped my palms and fingers together in a prayer, and I put them to my face, seeking patience. “Lithco. Can you come out and help us navigate this place without setting off traps?”

  “I can't,” Lithco said. “Well, guide you. I'm slave-pacted to come out at will, so I can do that much.”

  Tyler almost sputtered with laughter when he saw Lithco. “Is this a phase? Or was this always your inner spirit animal?”

  “I'm not sure. Is your spirit animal a hot busty woman?”

  Tyler's face paled. “Wait. How…” He suddenly became flustered when he realized I had given a shot in the dark about his guide, and he confirmed it.

  “Better choose another guide now that you're married,” I said with a grin. Before he could reply, I turned my attention back to Lithco. “Why can't you guide us?”

  “I can’t do anything I’m not certain about unless you ask for it, and I’m not confident about doing this at all.”

  I stared at the technology strangely. “Why? Is it deadly?”

  “Maybe—I don’t know. The Jacksmore civilization died out fifty thousand years before the gods created the Oracle. We’ve naturally found artifacts from its civilization, but it’s the will of the gods to destroy any technology that can allow me to fight against them. That includes deleting the information about the weapons, how they’re made, and so on. Of course, it’s rather silly, considering that I can destroy the universe through economic warfare, and I have so much advanced physics knowledge that creating weaponry is trivial. But, you know, politics.”

  Tyler grinned and turned to me. “I take that back. I kinda like this guy.”

  “That makes one of us…” I looked around. “What if I sign a safety waiver?”

  “I can help you, but it would be a process,” Lithco said. “You’d have to order a specialty team and use information requests. A project like this would usually take a platinum, just to justify the teleportation chain, but this is within the scope of your epic request, and the Oracle wants information on this, so… we’ll call it even with a gold request.”

  I winced.

  “That includes helping the entire team with the equipment, as well as fixing it if it’s useful.” Lithco scanned the area. “Considering that you want to build a base here, it’s a steal.”

  I sighed. “Fine.”

  Tyler looked between us strangely.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing, it’s just… you sound so… human. I mean, Alicia sounds human, too, but she’s definitive and never offers anything up. Is this a setting or something?”

  Lithco smiled strangely. “Calls me a human, then asks if it’s a setting…” He chuckled. “No, it’s not a setting. I’m not a guide—I’m an advisor. That means that I’m still confined by the same rules, but I can give Mira real advice, and call her hideous, should I wish to.”

  “I’ll kill you,” I said.

  “And I can tell jokes,” Lithco said dryly, making Tyler laugh.

  I turned to Tyler. “Speaking of guides—let’s see ‘er.”

  “No.”

  “Why not? You don’t want me to know you have some sexy broad that starts every sentence by saying how big a man you are?”

  Tyler opened his mouth to answer, then stopped, chuckled, and wagged his finger. “Nope. I’m not going to be baited into showing you.”

  “Oh yeah? Then shut up for a second.” I looked over the notes for a few minutes and then burst out laughing.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “What?”

  “There’s mecha robots in the base underground.”

  “Warframes,” Lithco said. “Small. I don’t want to Tyler to get the wrong image in his head. Also, they’re practically worthless. A third ev can chew through metal like humans eat cereal, so don’t get your hopes up.”

  “Who cares,” Tyler said. “They’re mechas! You know how cool that is? Whatever. Where are they?”

  “In a bunker that’s likely full of traps,” I said. “So unless you want to roll the dice, you’ll have to wait.”

  Tyler deflated. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. Besides… What are you frowning about? You’re starting a military encampment on the ruins of an ancient civilization. Lithco’s already making the arrangements. So just chill. We’ll come back next year.”

  —

  Tyler said waiting a full year would be agonizing, but it was anything but. There was so much to do before we could start building this city, and he was freshly married—that took up time. We also had family and work to attend to in Wraithwood.

  Wraithwood was always growing. Our people finished the business district by the end of the fall, and there was now a bar and bakery and barber. There was also a large store and trading post under construction, along with a wide variety of practical service businesses, such as blacksmiths, leather workers, and tailors. Some businesses processed the bones and hides of beasts, while others used the meat for high-end cuisine.

  A library was also under development, with everyone agreeing to spend part of the winter transposing their books into physical copies. Such a thing was forbidden in the First Domain, but in Wraithwood, people would learn as a reward for hard work and staying with us. It was also practical—we needed strong soldiers. Since everyone had a basic soul pact not to betray the forest, and the leaders were staying ten steps ahead, there was no risk in making those with stronger pacts as strong as possible.

  I took a year off from training so I could spend time with my family, and I spent most of the winter planning the city and hanging out with Mom, Dad, and the newlyweds.

  It was nice.

  That spring, the mana crop harvest grew in only two months, and to everyone’s surprise, the food fed everyone’s mana cores. Kai and Jaylin also had better seeds by that point, so we planted those as well, vowing to buy greenhouse wards so we could harvest food six times a year.

  Such wards were expensive, but Wraithwood was rich. I had over a billion hawks in personal discretionary funds, and Wraithwood had five hundred million. Next year, Wraithwood was expected to generate two billion. We were making money hand over fist—and we couldn’t keep up. The Melhans were trading with upper domains, and they were making so much money that they met every demand. They, along with every family, were training skilled people to send to Wraithwood in exchange for rare plants and elixirs, so our pool of highly skilled labor was growing. Soon, we’d send a good deal of our people to Fort Tyler, or whatever he would call it, and we’d import thousands more. It was going to be a boon.

  It wasn’t all business and family, though.

  During the springtime, I studied plants with Felio and Jaylin. Trant stopped by, and the Drokai taught us all about plants and alchemy. Elana got jealous of his tutelage and offered private lessons for Felio, Jaylin, and me on the condition that we would focus on our image for the rest of the year. Felio and Jaylin agreed. I told her I’d wear makeup during special occasions, and she relented, teaching us for a trivial price.

  The girls were ecstatic. It made it worth it.

  During the evenings, we’d have good food and spend time with our parents—our meaning my, Felio, Sarah, and Tyler’s parents, considering that we were all related. Kai was also included in that. We moved in together at some point, and we shared meals and a bed.

  We also started training together.

  Kai, Tyler, and I would take sword-fighting lessons from Malo, then Kai and I would practice together. I also started working on my bow skills while Kai trained with Vengeance. As for Tyler, he was finally learning magic. Malo and Cassain took turns teaching him, and he was in heaven.

  The summer carried on in that fashion. Soon, it was over, and the harvest was upon us once more. Another thousand people arrived—including the engineers we imported from the other planet. Lithco went through painstaking procedures to hide them—and succeeded.

  With that team in hand, we could start building the base—but that was for the summer.

  The fall was always the same—people settled in, and we did a lot of work. Wraithwood earned two billion in trade and spent a quarter of that in supplies. Now, we had wood, metal, labor, blacksmiths, and a galaxy of foodstuffs and other building materials, including wards of all varieties.

  Money was not a problem—so we had the best of everything.

  Greenhouse wards to grow food year-round. A bubble ward to go over the illusionary ward. New arraycraft equipment. Alchemy supplies—we had it all.

  Trigan put people to work setting it up. They did.

  After fall ended and winter began, I went to practice with Reta, mostly focusing on the fundamentals of soul beast fighting. To my surprise, she was satisfied enough with my progress to let me do drills with Sina and the lurvine, provided they took training seriously and didn’t sass me. They readily agreed.

  During that time, I also focused on building my soul core—but it was an excruciatingly slow process. I thought it would never end, but the last night of training that winter yielded a huge surprise.

  “I think you’re just about ready,” Reta said.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “Hunting. This summer, Tinus will lead the expedition through the Fifth Ring.”

  My heart thudded. “We’re going to hunt fourth evs?”

  She nodded.

  “You think I’m ready for that?”

  “I do. I think you could handle low fourths on your own, but we’ll accompany you until you consume a few.”

  I felt a static breeze wash over my body, causing a wave of goosebumps to rise on my arms. The strength disparity between second- and third-evolution creatures was vast—the gap between third and fourth was insurmountable. Once I started eating the flesh of fourth evolution entities, I would officially be able to destroy Hadrian Dante. That was a big deal. Hadrian was training in the Second Domain as a second evolution entity, pushing his core purity to the max while eating third evolution meat exclusively—but even if he developed a soul core, he wouldn’t be able to process fourth evolution meat. It was far too strong.

  That was good. Hadrian was a genius, but I planned to stay two steps ahead of him—and anyone like him. Hell was coming, and I had to be ready.

  “Okay, I’ll plan on it.” Kline transformed into his panther form to let me hop on. “By the way, we’re reviving Rall’s Fort, so I’ll need to move the teleportation circle there to check in on the team during the evenings. Is that fine?”

  Reta frowned. “Is that the base by Misty Row?”

  “Yeah. There’s only two entrances into the Fifth Ring—and we have to guard them both.”

  Reta’s eyes drifted into deep contemplation. Then, she said, “Well, if you’re going to do that, you better be ready. I cultivated thousands of third evolution beasts in that area to ensure no one would live there. So if you want it back—you’re going to have to fight for it.”