Each kill flashed across my vision, and I couldn’t help but smile as the Soul Essence count climbed higher and higher.
That’s also how I knew they’d taken down an adventuring party—despite my order to avoid anything too dangerous.
Still, I couldn’t be too mad. If the notifications were coming in, it meant they’d survived. I wasn’t there to collect whatever loot those adventurers dropped, but I trusted Roderik or Halvard to bring anything worthwhile back.
In the meantime, I’d managed to stockpile nearly three hundred lumber and a little over two hundred stone.
And as if on cue, two more notifications appeared—Skreek and Falkar’s evolutions had finished.
[Skreek - Goblin Skirmisher Level 10]
[Average Stats: 8]
[Average Skill Level: 5]
[Number of Skills: 5]
[Falkar - Kobold Bladedancer Level 10]
[Average Stats: 7]
[Average Skill Level: 6]
[Number of Skills: 4]
When I stepped into the clearing, they were already waiting.
Skreek stood taller now, his armor refitted to his leaner, faster frame. His new spear gleamed like polished silver, and his eyes—sharp, focused—snapped to me the moment I arrived.
Falkar, beside him, held his short sword loosely at his side. He moved with a quiet fluidity I hadn’t seen before, every motion measured and precise, like a dancer waiting for the first note of a song.
A Bladedancer and a Skirmisher. It fit the pair of them perfectly.
As for Elyndra… hers was different.
Her evolution was still ongoing—an Elite-tier transformation.
I’d chosen a class called Valkyrion—mostly because it sounded like “Valkyrie.” But it fit her style: bow and spear, grace and precision, and that quiet desire to protect the others.
“Let’s see what you become,” I murmured, watching the soft blue light pulsing from her hut.
But with the evolution complete on Skreek and Falkar, I had completed my quest.
[Quest Complete!]
[Quest: Evolution]
[Type: Main Quest]
[Objective:] The Herald will soon need soldiers to go to war with. The only way to do this is through evolution. The herald must have its minions reach level 10.
[Goal:] Evolve Three Monsters.
[Rewards:] +300 Soul Essence | Blueprint Unlocked: Town Hall | Room Unlocked: Summoning Chamber
I blinked at the rewards, eyebrows rising.
A Town Hall—and a Summoning Chamber with it. That sounded like a massive upgrade. Maybe it would finally let me summon larger monsters without crowding the cave.
But that raised another question: would the Core move there once it was built?
Only one way to find out.
I opened the construction window, scanning through the details.
[Town Hall]
[Cost: 800 Lumber | 350 Stone | 200 Soul Essence]
[Time: 1H 30M]
[Warning: Requires Core Level 3]
[Add-On: Summoning Chamber]
[Cost: 400 Lumber | 300 Stone | 500 Soul Essence]
[Time: 45M]
The Core Level 3 requirement made me groan under my breath, but I couldn’t really complain.
It made sense, in a way.
If I wanted to build a proper stronghold, the Core had to grow with it.
Still, it gave me my next clear goal.
But the next thing I wanted was already within reach: the Marketplace.
I was short by maybe thirty lumber and a hundred stone, but there was still plenty to harvest, and Elyndra’s evolution had at least a couple of hours left on the timer.
Besides, the labor would be worth it once that structure stood. If it was what I thought it was, it would make gathering resources—and maybe even finding weapons, armor, and supplies—a hell of a lot easier.
So, I went back to harvesting, all while keeping one eye on the system messages.
It took nearly an hour to collect the last few resources I needed.
Back inside the cave, I studied the grid, trying to decide where to place the Marketplace.
For now, my huts were lined up in neat rows—three on one side, two on the other—forming a natural road that led straight from the cave entrance.
The best spot would probably be at the northern edge of the settlement, just beyond the huts.
Smiling, I confirmed the placement.
The ground rumbled. Loose stones rained down from the ceiling, and I heard a startled shout from Analth—followed by an unmistakable cry of excitement.
I rushed outside.
What I saw stopped me cold.
The Marketplace wasn’t just a menu option brought to life—it looked like a real market square, the kind you’d see in a medieval city.
Six stalls stood in a semicircle, arranged neatly on freshly cobbled stone.
One displayed weapons of every kind; another, armor. A third offered food items, and a fourth had raw ores stacked in neat piles. The fifth stall gleamed with glass flasks and colored potions.
But the sixth… was empty. Completely bare.
I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
More unsettling, though, were the figures behind the stalls.
Humanoid in shape—but featureless, as if carved from translucent white glass. They didn’t speak. Didn’t move.
When I tried to identify one, the system didn’t even respond.
“Maybe…” I muttered, half to myself. “It’s like those old games—background NPCs, just to make the world feel alive.”
[Congratulations! The Marketplace has been unlocked!]
[Achievement Unlocked!]
[Title:] Market Stalls
[Condition:] Build the Marketplace
[Rewards:] +300 Soul Essence | Small Resource Box
I grinned as the notifications popped up and immediately opened the new Marketplace tab in my system.
My smile only grew wider at what I saw.
It was exactly what I had pictured—a universal marketplace, like an auction house straight out of an online RPG.
Everything was bought and sold with Soul Essence, and the listings covered just about everything: weapons, armor, potions, blueprints… even monsters.
Each section had its own subcategories.
The Monster tab, for instance, was broken down into: Minion, Standard, Elite, and Epic.
The Epic section was grayed out—locked, probably until I reached that tier myself—but the available tabs told me enough.
Even in another world, people were greedy.
Unevolved Minion-class monsters were listed for nearly triple their normal summoning cost—and the worst part?
People were paying it.
As I watched, two of the overpriced goblins in the listings vanished, marked as sold.
I browsed the other tabs, noting down average prices and getting my first real look at higher-tier loot.
So far, everything I’d found in the wild had been iron this or bronze that.
But here? Mixed in with the junk and starter gear were named weapons, armor, and trinkets—real treasures.
One in particular caught my eye:
[Echoblade - Rare Steel Short Sword]
[Forged from Sounding Steel, this weapon hums faintly when drawn, resonating with its wielder’s heartbeat.]
[Effect: +10% Agility | Slightly Increases Attack Speed and Evasion.]
[Harmonic Flow — Consecutive strikes build rhythmic resonance, slightly boosting damage with each hit (resets if an attack misses)]
I let out a low whistle, staring at the effect list. It was my first time seeing a weapon—or anything, really—with actual passives and scaling abilities.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
And this one? It was good. Really good.
Too bad it cost nearly three thousand Soul Essence.
I sighed and closed the menu for now. The options were there, sure—but at this stage, they were far out of reach.
Instead, my attention turned to Elyndra. Her evolution timer was nearly done, and I wanted to see what separated an Elite evolution from a standard one.
I didn’t have to wait long.
A brilliant flash erupted from her hut—bright enough to paint the trees in white—and then, silence. Darkness.
A moment later, she stepped out.
I froze.
She looked… different. Strikingly so.
The crystal embedded in her chest had grown, pulsing softly with inner light, and her skin shimmered faintly under the morning sun.
Her eyes burned brighter, and from her back unfurled wings of living flame—majestic, unfurling like those of a phoenix.
Even her posture had changed. No longer uncertain or deferential—now she stood tall, steady, every movement balanced with confidence and grace.
When her gaze met mine, she smiled and dropped to one knee, lowering her head.
“Herald,” she said.
Her voice was different too—less brittle glass, more harmonic chime.
[Elyndra - Coreborn Valkyrion Level 10]
[Average Stats: 19]
[Average Skill Level: 9]
[Number of Skills: 8]
I nearly gasped aloud at the numbers.
Her average stats had more than doubled.
Moments like this made me wish I could actually see individual stat spreads—just to understand what caused such a massive leap—but even without that, I couldn’t help smiling.
“Welcome back, Elyndra,” I said warmly.
She returned the smile, then bowed her head once more.
“Once more, I pledge my life to you, Herald,” she declared.
I stood there a moment, watching her, pride swelling in my chest.
She truly was an Elite—my first summoned, and now, my first evolved.
And somehow, that felt like a turning point.
Nearly another hour of resource gathering passed before my monsters returned.
By now, the forest around the cave had been stripped into a wide clearing, giving us a clear line of sight on the surrounding woods.
That’s why I saw them long before they reached the village—Roderik leading the group, dragging what looked like bodies behind him.
Five in total. Three human, two elven.
But that wasn’t what made my stomach twist.
Each of them bore the same mark somewhere on their person—branded into armor, stitched onto cloth, or burned into skin.
The letter “M,” surrounded by a rosary.
“Roderik…” I said quietly as they approached. “Where did you fight these adventurers?”
The kobold’s posture faltered. For the first time since I’d summoned him, he looked shaken.
His white fur was matted with blood—his own, from the look of it—and several others bore wounds that hadn’t yet healed.
“Herald,” Roderik began, bowing his head, “they were patrolling the forest near the northern edge of your domain.”
The northern edge.
That meant these adventurers—the ones bearing that same symbol—were pushing deeper into the woods.
And now, my monsters had killed them.
I swallowed hard. The image of that man from before—the one in silver armor, his blade crackling with lightning—flashed through my mind.
I could see him finding my village, standing at its edge, his sword alight as everything I’d built burned behind me.
I could feel my heart beginning to race, and I nodded.
“We’ll need to be prepared,” I ordered, walking toward Analth’s hut. “There’s a good chance more patrols will be sent to discover what happened here. We’ll need to be ready for whatever comes.”
Roderik nodded and vanished, running off to give orders or prepare while I spoke to Analth.
Analth was inside her hut this time when I approached, lying on one of the cots and staring at the ceiling. She shot up when I entered the room, giving me a curious look.
“You look troubled, Herald. What has happened?” she asked, and I began to explain what had occurred and what might come next.
The more I spoke, the more she frowned, until she finally sighed.
“You may need to prepare for war, then, Herald,” Analth said. “If a guild loses members, they try to find out how. And if it’s discovered that a clan of monsters — led by one strange-looking Herald who’s making homes for other monsters — then the full might of the guild may be brought down on you instead of just one or two parties.”
I grimaced, staring down at the floor. I’d known it would happen eventually… I’d only hoped we’d have better defenses by now, like walls or a tower where Roderik could snipe from.
“Right… then we need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” I sighed, glancing at her. “Will you help us?”
For a moment she didn’t answer, then she gave a small nod.
“If my life or yours is in danger, Herald, I will aid you,” she said. “But not a moment sooner. Even as a monster, I’m conflicted about killing the people I lived with for the last one hundred years.”
I could understand that. It would be like entering a civil war — fighting people who might have once been friends, drinking buddies, or neighbors. I wouldn’t want that either.
Still, I would do everything to defend my monsters, myself, and my Core.
I learned what I could of guilds from her before leaving her to her devices.
Turns out, it was much the same as how one would operate in an MMO.
There was a guild leader, vice leaders, captains, and then all the recruits and novices.
Guilds shared a base of operations and typically raided dungeons or hunted monsters as a group.
There was a whole recruitment process for most guilds, and all guilds had a theme.
For the most part, guilds earned the most fame and fortune in this world — sometimes even securing exclusive rights to certain dungeons.
She had no idea as to the name of the guild that bore the symbol of those we fought, but she told me two small guilds operated in the village of Aelshore: the riverfaring guild Hvalbryder, and the lore-seekers guild Lorehaven.
Both were fairly small, and I wasn’t certain there’d be much of a threat from either of them.
But that didn’t explain why this mysterious third guild was here, hunting in these woods.
Analth had told me that at times, guilds would hear rumors of Heralds or monsters that posed a greater threat to mortals as a whole — and would hunt them down.
Perhaps, with all the dead adventurers and monsters that had been piling up in the woods over the last couple of days, they had come to investigate.
As I stepped back out into the village center, I noticed the system was pinging quietly with a new notification.
[New Quest Received!]
[Quest: The First Challenge]
[Type: Main Quest]
[Objective:] The herald has gained the attention of a Guild native to the region of Keldmere. He must prepare for the fight of his life if he is to survive.
[Goal:] Prepare Your Defenses.
[Time Limit:] 3 Days
[Rewards:] ????
[Failure:] There is no “failure” to this quest — the Herald has three days before the might of this mysterious guild arrives in force. The only failure would be to not prepare well enough.
[New Quest Received!]
[Quest: Strategic Assets]
[Type: Side Quest]
[Objective:] With the coming of a mysterious guild, it’s time for the Herald to use everything he has to his advantage — including making new minions, building defenses, and training.
[Goal:] Prepare yourself to defend your home.
- Summon Ten new monsters - 0/10
- Dig the Trenches - 0/5
- Tame new monsters - 0/??
[Time Limit:] 2.5 Days
[Rewards:] +500 Soul Essence | Large Armor Box | Large Weapon Box | ????
[Failure:] Lacking in defenses and minions to face the coming threat could result in the death of the Herald. If the Herald is not properly prepared, he will receive a 10% strength penalty for the coming battle.
A main quest and a side quest — both at once.
Both geared toward making myself as strong as possible before this guild attacked me.
It also told me that the guild would know what had happened within three days.
I frowned, before taking a deep breath.
It looked like there’d be a lot of hunting over the next little while.
Dominic and Sootwing had both reached level ten, which meant they could evolve.
I thought about it for a moment, then nodded to myself.
I’d evolve them, and take Varka and Bjorrek out hunting.
The other monsters could stay here and defend the evolving pair in the meantime.
Now I had to decide what to evolve them into.
Dominic had three choices: Grave Knight, Bonewarden, or Blight Duelist.
Sootwing only had two: Ashstalker and Umbral Marksman.
Each of the classes seemed interesting, but I needed power — something that would pay off right away.
For Dominic, the choice was easy: Bonewarden. The description listed it as a specialist that used shieldcraft and unholy energy to ensure battle lines stayed standing. Their very presence radiated an aura that sapped enemy morale.
It seemed like the perfect evolution for the battles to come.
As for Sootwing… well, that was another easy one.
The Umbral Marksman was described as a rare evolution — and rare usually meant more power, right?
So I chose that for my resident imp.
The next thing on my list was to check the loot my monsters had brought back from those adventurers.
[Weapons Gained — 2x Steel Short Sword | 1x Iron Rapier | 2x Steel Flanged Mace | 2x Iron Dagger]
[Armor Gained — 4x Iron Armor | 4x Steel Large Shield | 1x Boarhide Leather Armor]
[Trinkets Gained — 5x Holy Symbol, Morveth]
I stared at the equipment for a moment, eyes widening.
All of it was better than anything my monsters were currently equipped with—or so I thought.
Surely steel was better than bronze or the beginner gear.
But the Holy Symbols drew my attention most.
Morveth.
Obviously some sort of god or goddess in this new world, but I knew nothing beyond that.
I wondered briefly if Analth would know anything, but decided to leave it for later.
In the meantime, I traded out Falkar’s short sword for one of the steel ones, putting the other in storage to give Dominic once his evolution finished.
The rapier, maces, and daggers also went into the inventory.
The armor was a different story, though. I swapped my own leathers for the Boarhide set, finding it gave a better stat increase—which meant Varka got my old wolfhide armor.
The Iron Armor went to Skreek, Falkar, Elyndra, and Bjorrek.
It looked almost comical on the troll, despite the fact that it resized itself to fit him.
That left the shields and holy symbols.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the symbols, but I suspected they’d be useful later.
As for the shields… I decided to keep my buckler for now, and the only other shield user was currently evolving—so that, too, could wait.
“Roderik, Halvard,” I called the pair over, both of them kneeling in front of me. “I’m taking our new additions out for some hunting. Until I return, guard the village. And watch out for more of these strange adventurers. The last thing we need is them burning the whole village down.”
Both monsters bowed in answer, and I grabbed Varka and Bjorrek.
Time to see what these two could do.
[Current Day: 4]
[Soul Essence: 147]
[Kingdom Core: Level 2]
[Domain Size: 2 Sectors]
[Active Quest: The First Challenge (3 Days Remain) | Strategic Assets (2.5 Days Remain)]