Exploration

Damon landed at the manor to a quiet repose.

Entering the gates, Damon began thinking. 'I should really explore this place and have a calm day for once. I've been going full throttle since I landed on this formerly god-forsaken planet.'

Damon finally took in the full grandeur of the manor. With it's ancient stone walls, menacing gargoyles, and grand height. Even though it's size only matched that of a two-story home, Damon felt that the manor had a unique aura to it.

'It's still amazing to me that I can create things like this. All it costs is a bit of energy and some imagery. Maybe that's the perk of being a god?'

Damon opened the double doors and entered the antechamber. In front of him, two ivory staircases winded up to the second level. A chandelier decorated with gold and crystal hung above and light up the whole space.

Deciding to explore the first floor, Damon took a left down a hallway. The hallway itself was marble and had crystal lights lining the walls. Exiting the hallway, Damon was welcomed into a massive sitting room. It had rich brown couches and armchairs scattered around a central fireplace.

Maneuvering through the couches, Damon reached another hallway parallel to the previous one. It lined the backside of the manor and seemed to be a servants entrance. With stone walls and torched fixtures, Damon felt like he had entered a dungeon.

The hallway took a right into a servants quarter. Damon decided to explore that later as he continued forward. Soon, Damon smelled the familiar scent of old books as he entered into a massive study. It had bookcases lining the walls from top to bottom, and they were filled to the brim with books. In the center of the room, he saw a brown desk facing a group of richly decorated armchairs.

The whole room felt very formal and strict. 'I'd imagine that this is where the lord would meet with his peers to make deals. It's suitable for now but it'll have to be upgraded when I begin welcoming followers into the fold.'

With the first floor fully explored, Damon decided to ascend upstairs and see what it had to offer. 'I sure hope it has somewhere to sleep! Sleeping in grass wasn't a satisfying experience.'

Exiting the staircase, Damon saw three doors positioned in a semi-circle around him. He opened the first door and was greeted by a grand sight. The beautiful marble room, accented with gold, had a giant white bed placed in the center. Damon ignored the dresser, closet, and mirror as he ran over to the bed.

Throwing off his armor, Damon jumped onto the bed.

"So soft!" He exclaimed.

Damon sunk into the bed as he reflected on what had happened in just the past few days.

From just a normal college student who loved literature, to a deity with a world on his shoulders. So much had changed. It truly sounded like the plot of a play or movie.

Ever since the death of his parents at the hands of a drunk driver, Damon had wished to control his own future. That feeling of helplessness was something he had never wanted to feel again. This desire was what drove him on his educational journey. He never wanted to be someone who was easily controlled or misled.

On this journey, Damon met a select group of friends. They were all students at the same prestigious university and they were able to tell how destructive Damon's actions were to himself.

Between constant all nighters, starving himself to save money, and even doing dangerous medical tests for money, Damon was slowly killing himself.

In his pursuit of control and success, Damon was dragging himself into the abyss.

They saved him from himself. Although he didn't realize it at the time.

Damon's desire for control was a powerful motivator but it could also make him a toxic and difficult person if he didn't understand the effects of it.

'Varian and everyone else, I'll get revenge for you.' Damon thought as he clenched his fists.

With his self reflection complete, Damon got up and started planning out his next few steps.

'The owls should be back soon with the information I need. In the meantime, I should adjust the defenses of the manor.' Damon thought as he grabbed his armor and placed it onto a nearby stand.

Soon, Damon exited the manor and inspected the exterior walls that surrounded his manor. They were covered in ivy, but this only accentuated their ancient aura. Small trees, bushes, and plants lined the pathway that connected his manor to the gates.

'The first addition I should make is a last-defense in case the rest fails.' He thought.

Damon brainstormed for a bit before settling on an enchanting idea.

'How about I make some knights to guard the manor?'

Damon imagined a two foot knight clad in full steel armor and armed with a steel arming sword. To make them more efficient, Damon made two new mechanisms. He first created a core in the center of the knight that could collect universal energy when the knight was deactivated. After that, he made a network of meridians that could carry the energy to all parts of his body.

This would make the knight able to reinforce his weapons and armor or even reinforce his own body with universal energy. These changes would make sure that the knight could destroy most threats that Damon had seen so far.

All of these upgrades combined cost an exorbitant amount of essence.

'Since I still have half of my energy, I might as well make two.'

With this, Damon duplicated the knight and soon had two steel knights guarding the door of his manor. He liked the abilities of the knights but felt like their reactions needed some tweaking. Customizing the settings, Damon set them into three modes.

Combat Mode which would activate when an unknown organism breached the forcefield.

Guard Mode which would activate when the storage was full. The knight would be fully ready to transition into combat mode.

Night Mode which would activate when their was both no enemies around and when their storage was below 50%.

He also added a quirk that made it so that one knight was always on guard mode. This made sure that their would always be one on watch. As a result, the one in night mode would have enough time to awaken and join the fight.

Satisfied with his work, Damon decided to check with his scouting owls.

Immediately, his vision was divided into three as he saw the lands from high above.

Over the next few hours, Damon observed the gigantic nature of the world. Valleys and crevices so deep that one couldn't even comprehend their depths were paired with mountains so tall that one couldn't compare to their majesty.

All of the while, he searched for traces of beast or human civilization.

Midway through, he spotted an extremely large settlement that was positioned on a plateau. It's walls seemed very futuristic as they were metallic and had giant cannons the size of naval guns on them.

Compared to the walls, however, the inside of the settlement was covered by a strange mix of fantasy and sci-fi buildings. The buildings themselves were tall skyscrapers but they all were made of strange materials. They seemed to be made of the remains of animals or even just raw metals at times.

Damon suspected that the humans had discovered the use of universal energy and had adapted it into their technology and perhaps even themselves. He was far too high above to see details of the people but was able to see winding roads that soon disappeared beneath the tree canopies.

Near the end of his scouting, Damon's theories were confirmed.

Far below, a convoy of humans was defending itself against a horde of beasts. he could distinguish three lines of combatants as they fended off the beasts. One directly met the dark horde, one stood behind and acted as both reinforcements and support, and another group stood in the back and pelted the enemies with projectiles.

The special thing about these projectiles, though, was that many of them seemed to be entirely generated from the people themselves. Dark purple snakes of lightning, bright red suns of flame, and even streams of pure light were bombarding the beasts.

With this final theory confirmed, Damon commanded the owls to turn back. He needed to map out his surroundings and try to find any more human strongholds.

Yawning, Damon shrugged off the exhaustion and went to fix the last major issue with his defenses. The issue surrounded the consumption of the defenses he had made. The knights could regenerate by themselves but his static defenses couldn't. He needed to both add that as a component and create a backup generator of sorts that could supply each of the defenses with more energy if needed.

Landing on the roof, Damon imagined a core within all of the defenses. He then connected these cores to a massive core that he placed inside the attic using spiritual tethers. The massive core and all the smaller cores would run off of universal energy now and could regenerate it over time. The Central Core would supply needed energy to the other cores in case of an emergency.

Customizing these defenses as well, Damon added two primary modes.

Night Mode which would occur when the defenses weren't fully charged and only if there were no enemies around.

Combat Mode would activate upon the detection of unknown foreign entities.

He also added the same perk he added to the knights. At all times, at least half of the defenses would be active.

With the static defenses done, Damon upgraded the shield generator as well and connected it to the Central Core.

'Now I truly feel drained! In both mind and energy.' Damon thought.

Afterall, he had just used all of his remaining energy to do these upgrades.

All of his goals for the day accomplished, Damon settled into bed and went to sleep under the light of the purple moon.