Whispers of a Dead Empire

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I met her eyes, and she spun away, acting as if she wasn't just staring daggers into my back. I narrowed my eyes and stared at her as I thought about it. I felt that she was taking her job a bit too seriously, and I should work on that and see if she will tone it down a bit.

I tore my gaze from her and looked back at my teacher, and relaxed a bit to allow him to better position me. I did my best to memorize how I was standing and attempted to throw another punch once more. This time it felt a little smoother.

Aaron walked around me with a watchful eye and demonstrated the punch once more. I watched as his back leg shifted and his hips and chest swung forward, and his arm shot out. I got back into position, mimicked his movements, and found that they were much easier to perform.

Oh! I did something! A quiet snicker escaped from my lips, and a slight twinge of pride blossomed in my chest. I know it wasn't much, but I was just happy that I was making progress, no matter how small it may be. "Alright, Aaron! Let's keep it going!"

Over a few hours, I've learned various punches and kicks, and with each successful move, Aaron only grew harsher in my training. Eventually, my muscles changed from a pleasant burn to a raging fire. My lungs desperately tried to quench the heat that was ravaging my chest. I had no idea that just running through basic stances and movements was this intensive.

"Okay, okay, that's enough for now, Aaron! I need to catch my breath." I dropped to my back as I swallowed large gulps of air and stared into the sky. The weather cleared up mostly, and a few stray clouds floated lazily past. My eyes wandered down to the notifications that built up over a few hours.

I gulped down more air, reflecting a bit on what I learned. I can understand that I won't be a master overnight, but I had a feeling that my proficiency score won't be going up this fast for much longer. But I read that it affects my future class milestones, so I want to drag it up as high as possible before I get to that point, along with what other proficiencies I can get.

I lay there for a moment before my muscles twitched and spasmed, causing me to lament my choices of not working out as much as I should have. But that also begged the question, what would my class evolution be? Currently, I am just a Soul Catalyzer, and I only have a soul transforming skill and a ranged attack. So I would have to be very careful in the coming time with my choices to find a powerful enough class to fit my needs. I will also have to supplement my training with exercises at this rate, so I'm not relegated to being a mess afterward.

I laid there for a few moments longer as my body pulsated with the pain of working out. Finally, I took another breath and forced myself to stand up. As much as I wanted just to lay there, I didn't have enough time on my hands to mess around. I brought my map up and looked at the locations I specified for resource drops.

Near the destroyed fountain, a growing pile of plants looked to be shredded down, which was lovely. I could produce clothing now for everyone. Well, almost everyone. I had to keep the aesthetic I had going on. I stored all the plant fibers, which tallied up to well over a few thousand units. I went ahead and looked across the domain to see how everyone else was looking.

A large group of undead was slowly building a road from the stronghold out. They were cutting down trees and pulling plants from the ground. A few came behind them with large slabs of stones affixed to the wooden handles, and they were mashing the ground as they walked, compacting it down. Some of the undead were refining the trees that were getting cut down into large planks of wood.

They were an industrious bunch, though they have their leadership to thank for that. For a while, I was worried that I would have to teach them that stuff, which would have been bothersome because I didn't know myself how to do half of what they were doing now. While all of that was going on, I decided to scroll the map over to the mines. I was curious about how the small detachment was faring, and much to my surprise, there was a small battle occurring.

A handful of zombies and skeletons were trying to fight the small horde that was coming their way. Poor undead, maybe I should have brought them into the stronghold, but it was too late for that now. It pained me to watch them kill themselves like that. I mean, I handled their wellbeing, and yet here they were mindlessly killing each other. But it was also a double-edged blade. They had to kill to get stronger cause it would be the only way we would live. I wished it didn't have to be like this.

I turned off my map, wanting to get away from the death that was occurring close by. I guess I should go rest for a bit and work on some clothing for the troops, along with a ranking system to differentiate better who they all were, cause let's be honest here, all the undead looked about the same to me. I know they were all unique, but at the same time, it was tough to tell the skeletons apart, and the zombies were masses of decaying flesh that made it hard to tell who was who.

I wasn't even sure if the ghost and spirits could wear clothing, but we would find out. "Alright, Aaron, thank you! I'll be back in a little while. I want to rest and get some training in with Alessia before we go back to work. You are free to do whatever it is you need to do." I waved my hand at him, and he chittered out a muted response. It sounded like something close to thank you. Maybe I was picking up on how skeletons talk.

I walked over to Alessia, forcing my legs to move, which was a freakishly challenging task, and placed my hand on her shoulder, and teleported to my office. Once we arrived, I threw myself onto my bed. Alessia sat in my chair, crossed her arms, and stared at me like a parent scolding a child. A look I was all too familiar with, sadly.

'What?" I called out as I got comfortable in my bed and pulled up my menu. I wanted to work on clothing for everyone next, and since I did that, I might also work on some stuff for myself. She reached over to my bag, pulled out my notebook and a pen, and wrote as I worked.

Naturally, I wanted something to look nice, but for this area, I had to focus on storytelling through the environment, and this was one of the best things that I could do for that. So I decided on a simple shirt and a pair of pants that I made to look as if they were covered in cuts and dried blood. However, I would have dress clothing for them for formal occasions that I will keep to the side and clothing for my bosses.

I heard scribbling stop just as I was working on colors and finishing touches on the clothing. My whole goal here was to find a suitable military outfit for them, and I didn't quite want to base them off of stuff from Earth, but I would if I have to. So I tore my attention from the menus and looked over to the writing.

It bothers me so how you allow them to touch you like that. You are an Empress, and no mere being should be allowed to lay a hand on you.

A strange feeling twisted around my chest. One that I couldn't quite identify. I've lived my entire life believing that nobility was just like anyone else and didn't have a special right to rule. I wasn't too keen on changing that line of thought, however. "I understand, Alessia, but I need you to trust me. No harm will come to me. Especially not by those who swore to protect me."

She wrote once more, and I went back to the clothing. There, only slightly inspired from Earth. I changed both the shirt and the pants to a drab grey and added a pocket on the shirt's breast and then a pair of cuffs and a collar. I added a zipper down the front, added a flap across the front to hide it from sight, and then added a few pockets around the pant legs.

I tore my gaze from my menu once more to see what Alessia had to say.

It's my prerogative as your chosen to ensure your safety at all times, no matter what.

I mentally rolled my eyes at her words. I did this to myself. I didn't think she would come out this overzealous, but I would work on it. "Okay, I get it, Alessia, but trust me. Besides, I'll keep you around just in case, all right?" I went back to my work. I was hoping that the appeasement would work for now, but we would see. I added a few more touches like a drawstring and even added a rank patch on the shoulder. I knew I said I wouldn't draw too much from Earth, but I can't help it. It's hard making stuff on my own like this without the aid of google.

Now that I am done with that, I should work on uniform variations and then ranks. But I had no clue where to start with that. So I saved the template as the Legionary Combat Outfit and spawned one in to see what it felt like. The clothing itself was soft to the touch and didn't feel heavy, which was good. So now I just had to create a destroyed version of this and add variation to it for the rest of the troops to have some sort of uniformity to my new empire.