The erratic swarm made it impossible to count how many crows were in the skies. A huge group in the west interrupted the swarm by attacking other crows, courtesy of Ernest, no doubt. Arrows joined fireballs, lightning bolts, massive boulders, and spears of several different metals as our long ranged groups rained death upon the crows.

  Black swirls of feathers plummeted as corpses littered the ground. More and more fell, yet only a third of the total were removed before they entered the range of Feast Burst.

  I took a quick glance behind me, making sure the twenty people were standing within their circles. I opened the mouth on my chest wide, calling upon the Feast Burst. The runes around me glowed to life, the threads extending out to the twenty other circles. The surge of power flooded into me from the others, and Feast Burst swelled to more than twenty meters wide, its smaller orbs swelling and splitting to cover it.

  A gentle nudge later and it shot into the sky, swallowing up the front waves of crows as it flew to the center of the swarm. The sound of flapping wings dulled and was overtaken by the thrum of Hunger. As before, I felt my energies draining, slower now with the aid of the others, and the bursts arced out from the main beam, spreading and breaking through the swarm in flashes of crimson and black.

  The mass of consumed energy pulled toward me. I didn’t need it and couldn’t use it, so I tried to thread it through to empower my allies. The connections brightened, thickening and pulsing. Death after death fed experience and energy through to the others. I only kept enough of it to keep the burst running.

  As the connection deepened, I felt my senses expand. Killing thousands of weaker enemies still gave enough to gain levels, and I could sense my unique records empowering the experience as it flooded the twenty circles.

  I felt them gain level after level. My exuberant smile grew predatory as we all received the notification.

  WAVE 11 COMPLETE! Next wave to commence in ten minutes. Records received.

  The twenty who stood behind me were dumbfounded as I hopped down off the wall, turning off the luring mark to keep it in check. I raised my hands for high fives as I approached them, “Well, that was awesome!”

  They were chosen because they were some of the lower leveled individuals, around Level 55. The lowest one now was Level 58. Tree flickered excitedly as General Selka speed walked to me, rubbing her temples from her mana headache.

  “At least six class or profession levels per person?! New plan! Tree, how many more can we set up like this? As in, how many can we connect in less than ten minutes?”

  “Maybe one in ten minutes, but if we can get uninterrupted time, we can make more arrays. We can set up similar arrays in each direction, though they won’t be quite as effective at giving people experience when powered by anyone other than Dan, as his absurd stats allow him the senses and ability to move the majority of the experience to the others.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Okay, we’ll pull the runeweavers from the battle and continue the work,” Selka said, turning and walking away, giving the orders to begin the empowering arrays in each of the eight directions.

  Waves 12 and 13 returned the ground troops alongside the crows, and the result was much the same. Wave 14 added the mounted chimpcrete beasts. My empowered Feast Burst conquered all. Our army was quickly growing in power, with the waves bringing several class, profession, and racial skill selections.

  The end of wave 14 extended our time between waves to an hour. Only around three hours total had passed between the end of wave 11 to the current lull, and we had much to discuss. Finally, we’d saved enough to regain the bubble shield, but that would again render us with almost no wave coins to make repairs. The leadership all gathered in the meeting room once again, joined this time by Tree, who flickered randomly as it floated over the table.

  “The waves haven’t lasted long enough for anything to get close enough to damage our tower,” Cari said, gently patting the snake heads of her ‘hair.’

  “And we should be able to quickly accrue more coins at the start of the next wave,” Ernest chimed in.

  “We don’t know what the next wave even is,” Gregory said, thumbing the axe he cradled in his lap.

  “It could be one high leveled monster, or more of the same ridiculous bullshit army. How can the System make so many monsters? Does it have no limit?” Sarah asked as she idly carved little runes into the table.

  “I have no idea, but it seems to have some kind of limit. The larger and stronger the creature, the fewer it spawns in,” I said with a shrug.

  “Whatever it is, we’ll handle it as we have been. Status of the empowering arrays?” Selka asked.

  “Two have been completed thus far. The one to the north that Dan used, and one to the south. We’ll begin the western and eastern setups next,” Bethany said as she consulted a clipboard page covered in scribbles.

  “Good, the second one was faster than the first. Let’s try to keep that streak going. Dan, I think we’d be in a world of hurt without your assistance thus far. Thank you.”

  “Careful, General, I thought you were gonna smile for a second,” I smiled wide and nodded in acknowledgement.

  A short while later, we all gathered outside the tower and there was a collective sigh of relief as the bubble shield formed. We set it to fifty meters back from the adamantium wall to allow for the turrets and arrays to remain open. In a stroke of luck or more likely proper planning by the others, all of our crafting buildings fell within the bubble. The craftspeople, now feeling much more secure, set to their work with renewed vigor.

  I walked out to the northern array as usual, and found a line of people arguing about who would be next in the circles. That, of course, was not my problem to sort out, so I waved and greeted them as I passed by to hop up onto the wall. Eventually, someone showed up and sorted them out, as the noise quieted behind me. I closed my eyes and drifted into my now mostly empty Soul Chamber.

  I walked along the wall of shelves holding the control spheres and stepped into the Chamber of the Deeps. As I crossed the threshold, I felt the ambient pressure greatly increase around me. It felt kinda nice, actually, like a weighted blanket. The dark green waters of the room glew, and I felt the faintest presence of Thalassa through my blessing. I tried to reach out, but I felt the block by the System. I didn’t know what would happen if I tried to break through the block, so I just let it be for now. I doubted she’d be willing to help us out, or rather that the System wouldn’t allow it.

  This is the tutorial, after all.

  I sat in quiet contemplation within the Deeps, allowing my senses to expand out from where I sat. Nothing thus far had been higher level than I was, so my sense skill hadn’t pinged anything within the armies, except our own troops.

  My shock pulled me from my meditation when I felt a faint ping deep underground several kilometers north of our wall.