Chapter 115

Ibro understood the meaning of Hoden's question so he said:

"We will gain a lot of food from surface monsters strongholds. We also will be able to break the curse after we upgrade our village."

"Don't think upgrading the village will be so easily done or rapidly finished."

"IT doesn't matter. If we had a stronger enemy then we would lose more soldiers.

That will relieve a lot of our food consumption pressure. We only need to finish the surface battles as soon as possible and then transfer all the rss from their strongholds to here."

Mamor asked in a serious tone:

"What about the defenses of this village? Have they finished the walls? Are there any defensive towers here?"

"I believe the walls have been finished already. I gave an order to construct them before I went to the market. We can view it now. I also need to assign some soldiers to go for the scout mission.

We don't have any towers built at the moment but I have some towers in my inventory. Also, I can buy some from the market if we need to have more. Just take a tour around the village walls and draw the defensive plans for the battle of village upgrade."

Hoden looked outside the window towards the village and then said in a deep tone:

"You know you have an excellent opportunity now, my lord?"

"What do you mean Hoden?"

"Do you mean the Empire foundation inscriptions?"

"Exactly."

"I heard once about it. There is a strict rule for this diagram to be built."

"I know the conditions for it. I believe our lord can do it in time."

"But I heard that this opportunity has harsh conditions, even one of them is to have the approval of the game."

"If we tried we might get lucky and have that approval. Game approval is the only condition that is outside our power. If we got it then we have a very certain chance of success."

Ibro felt weird as he was ignorant of what these two were speaking about with such excitement. He interrupted their dialogue saying:

"Can you explain to me what you are talking about?"

Hoden explained:

"We were talking about the sky-high diagram. Each territory in the game has three levels. Two available to everyone and one level that is exclusive to very rare players. We don't know if lords can participate in it, but if we can then we should strive for this chance."

Ibro understood immediately what he meant so he said with confidence:

"You mean sky-high world? I already have the right to participate in the competition for this world.

the only problem is that I don't know how to do it. I couldn't find this world at all since I established my village."

Ibro noticed the change of looks on both men. They looked at Ibro with deeper shock than when they saw Sefiera. Ibro felt weird so he asked:

"What is wrong?"

"Did you just say you have applied for the competition for sky-high world?"

"No, I said I already am a competitor for sky-high world. But I don't know how to compete or how to go there!"

"Are you speaking seriously my lord?"

Ibro felt the huge excitement and great impatience in both men in front of him. He felt he had obtained something major without knowing the real value of it.

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Excuse our excitement and disbelief my lord. This sky-high opportunity is a one in a million opportunities for any civilization. It's unbelievable for you to obtain it."

Ibro laughed then said:

"Tell me then Hoden what is the importance of this chance?"

"It's a huge opportunity, my lord. I will tell you everything about it, but may I ask ``Do you gain approval to be one of the candidates to compete for this world?"

"I gained the right to compete in this world. How many times do you want me to repeat it?"

He was laughing from the childish response of these two men. Hoden then started to explain everything:

"To explain the importance of the sky-high world, I must talk a little about this game. This game transcends time and place. That means the time here is separate from the time in any other universe.

This game is like a transport gate that links between lower universes and one higher supreme universe. That higher supreme universe is known as "Sky-high universe".

If your civilization gains the right to compete for the sky-high universe, then you have a unique opportunity here. All nominees in this competition aren't ordinary persons at all."

Ibro didn't understand the importance of this opportunity yet so he asked:

"What is the benefit that I get from this?"

"Benefit? There are a lot of them. For example, your empire will be eternal! No one can destroy your empire, even if it was a mighty empire in the sky-high universe. You will gain access to advanced knowledge that we know nothing about.

This game here is the technology of this universe. This game collects all unique new info and tries to test it here on these lower layers. When knowledge is proven worthy, it will be applied in the upper supreme universe.

Being nominated gives you the opportunity to get the support of a higher supreme power in that universe. It will support you and guide you. It even might help you directly and shield you from any danger.

If you managed to go there my lord, then no enemy can stand in your face."

"Even our mysterious common enemy?"

"Well, this is a special case here."

Ibro felt weird and contradicted. He was about to ask more but Hoden stopped him by saying:

"I hope you pardon me, my lord, for not being able to answer your questions about that guy. One day you will know the whole truth. The most important thing now is to use this chance wisely. Our village is now in the most dangerous period in this competition."

"Do you mean because of that man's interference?"

"Not entirely true. For any civilization to be able to apply for the competition, it must build a new village and make that village its capital.

Then it must build something that represents this civilization. If the game approves this request, then it must do a certain ritual before upgrading the village. For our case here, my lord, our village is the sole village for our empire.

You have already gained approval for competition. So we need to build a monument and decide a certain ritual for it."

Ibro didn't fully understand his meaning, so he asked:

"Do you mean that I must design a building and build it to be my civilization symbol?"

"Yes, that's the case indeed my lord."

"Then what about this ritual?"

"This ritual differs from civilization to another. The most important thing in this ritual is to be a true representation of the core of civilization.

For example, some civilizations depended on the tech side so they use some tech rituals. Others depend upon natural energy so they use natural energy rituals and so on.

You need to determine the core of our civilization so we can use it as our ritual. About the ritual itself, it's easy. Any ritual is about writing the name of the civilization essence around the monument by using inscriptions.

As you are already a runemaster my lord, then it is easy for you to write any inscription."

Ibro didn't respond directly. He calmly contemplated what he just heard. All this info was really new to him. He took his time in understanding them. He then asked:

"I came from a place with no special powers at all. For the essence of my civilization, I really don't have any preference. What are the most powerful essences in the civilizations? Which one of them is the most powerful?"

"There are the supreme five essences, which includes tech, soul cultivation, natural powers, body cultivation and cosmic powers. Every single one of them has its own odds and cons.

There is no unique superpower in any of them. As you noticed, every one of them has its own superiority in certain fields than others. That is why I and Mamor chose a mix of war units from all of these supreme five.

I really can't advise you with one of them. You, my lord, are totally free to choose any of them as you like."

Ibro smiled as he decided:

"Then I will choose all of them as the essence of my civilization."

"That's impossible."

It was not only Hoden who said this but also Mamor. Ibro looked strangely to both of them while Mamor explained:

"You are the lord of this civilization. The first step in upgrading the village is just to raise its level and build the monument and choose the rituals. After that, the lord has to reach a certain level in the essence he chose before he could upgrade the village level.

The competition for sky-high position is based on the farthest lord to go with his civilization in a given period of time. It's a race against time.

So if you chose all those essences, which is something no one has ever done before, you will waste a very valuable time in this competition. It's impossible to raise the village level after that as you must learn all these powers yourself and reach a certain level in them."

Ibro stood there silently thinking about this reason. It was a very logical reason, but something deep inside him kept pushing him towards his original thought.

The monument he chose was easily determined by him. What he was hesitating about was the essence of his civilization. He looked to the sky through the opened window of his manor.

He recalled his own words to that game when he was on that endless road. He felt he was again standing in that road and he never left it. He smiled.

He vowed before he would be the master of his own destiny. If he felt this was the right choice to do then he would stick to it. He said in a very decisive tone:

"I have decided. The monument will be a huge pyramid made out of rare ores and the rituals will be all the five supreme essences. There is no return in my decision and I won't accept any more discussions. That decision is a final decision."