5 Grind

"You're awake," said the guardsman.

Eyes rested and body relaxed, he was met with the same guardsman he summoned… with his mothers help. Speaking of his mother–

"You feeling unwell?" the guardsman inquired.

Zesrael shook his head in response. He was leaned up against a tree, facing the same cave he left. Bodies they ravaged with precision lay scattered, cold to the time they've been left.

"You've slept for seven hours, your Honored One."

He nodded in response, wishing he could speak the words he wanted to say.

│

[You have a gift]

│

Curious, he checked his personal panel:

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| Title(s): The Ever Chosen￤Chosen Warmaster of 40k |

| Skill(s): Inventory￤Fusion￤Login￤Omni Travel￤Personal Dimension￤Summoner￤Chosen Sharpshooter￤Language of the Chosen |

| Item(s): Yharnam Hunter Set￤Chain Knife￤Godwyn-De'az Pattern Bolt Pistol |

(A/N: changing chain blade to knife as my research was off, the chain blade was not the smallest chain weapon.)

| Stats: | Stat Points: 9 |

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Strength: 13

Agility: 21

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Energy: 1.5/2.5

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│

He was surprised. The [Language of the Chosen] was one thing, but the nine stat points and his new level of three was another welcome surprise. He wondered what the level was or how he would gain levels. He gazes at the bodies again then back at his level. Putting two and two together, subjugating his adversaries could possibly gain him the means to level up. But of course this is just a theory. Double checking for any more surprises, he dumped his stat points on Energy, bumping it up to 10.5/11.5. It was time to test out his mothers gift.

"H– hey," the same voice, soft yet vibrant more so than when they were in the realm of dreams.

The guardsman, ignoring the slight acknowledgement of his existence compared to when they first met, immediately stood at attention, saluting:

"From your mouth to my ears sir!" the guardsman resolutely barked.

Zesrael was taken aback by the sudden movement and saluting."

"Hmm– at ease."

"Sir!"

If he wanted to summon more, he'd firstly have to build a field command in his personal dimension… but one thing at a time. Why visit his dimension when he can't do anything with it in the first place.

"Grind…"

"Sir?"

Zesrael looked at the bodies once again then back to the guardsman, "Hunt."

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—Bang!

—Grrrring!

—Pew!

Wolves, boars, wild dogs, and more wolves. They explored and tainted the lands they passed by. Blood, nothing but blood and gore, trailblazing their way in the name of grind. His speculations were correct: the more adversaries he kills, the more levels he can gain; though, after reaching level 13, his progress has been slow as of late.

~thud~

Another body drops in this brightly lit forest. They've traveled for a while, drinking from rivers and eating from their successful ventures– which have been getting fairly easy due to his high level; that's not even mentioning the sergeant hanging around him 24/7.

In times of rest, he's come to find another issue: ammunition and maintenance of their equipment. Before reaching level 4, he'd run out of ammo. Funnily enough, his energy reserves had also depleted. Thankfully, the guardsman was still accompanying him as well due to the reserved energy he had already given. After finding out that his energy was practically the root of almost all of his skills and common abilities, he's come to appreciate close combat with his chain knife– of which the sergeant has taught him basic CQB skills over the several days they've been hunting. With that said, he'd come to prioritize energy over all of his stats, with occasional dabbles between all stat points.

"Sir, I'm running low on ammunition," the sergeant informed Zesrael.

"Surprised… you lasted long," Zes commented cheerfully.

│

| Title(s): The Ever Chosen￤Chosen Warmaster of 40k |

| Skill(s): Inventory￤Fusion￤Login￤Omni Travel￤Personal Dimension￤Summoner￤Chosen Sharpshooter￤Language of the Chosen |

| Item(s): Yharnam Hunter Set￤Chain Knife￤Godwyn-De'az Pattern Bolt Pistol |

| Stats: | Stat Points: 0 |

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Strength: 23

Agility: 26

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Energy: 25.5/26.5

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│

Zes, deep in thought, opted to hunt more just in case, "Keep going?" but just in case, he asked the sergeant.

He smiled, "from your mouth to my ears sir!"

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The sergeant lasted one and a half days before going dry. It just so happens to be the beginning of the next week too.

│

[Logged in at: Normal Forest]

[Gain Skill: Serene Mind]

[Skill Description: —Lead with a mind of fortitude– gates barded and guarded against doubt. During the darkest hours, during times of need, a stable mind will not fail those undaunted. A strong mentality is the reason why the planet broke before the guards did—]

│

"Neat," Zes commented, popping the 'T.'

"Have you leveled up, as you say sir?" The guardsman asked, holstering his laspistol.

│

| Title(s): The Ever Chosen￤Chosen Warmaster of 40k |

| Skill(s): Inventory￤Fusion￤Login￤Omni Travel￤Personal Dimension￤Summoner￤Chosen Sharpshooter￤Language of the Chosen￤Serene Mind |

| Item(s): Yharnam Hunter Set￤Chain Knife￤Godwyn-De'az Pattern Bolt Pistol |

| Stats: | Stat Points: 0 |

––––––––––––––

Strength: 23

Agility: 26

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Energy: 28.5/29.5

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│

"Yes, shall we make our base?"

The guardsman smiles, "A place to call home."

Zesrael nodded in understanding. Activating his Personal Dimension ability, they blimped out of existence with a flash of light. Followed by their surrounding area turning gray, swallowed by the stopping of time.

The two blimped into existence just a couple inches above the dirt ground.

–thud

"–Whew, ain't this an inviting place," the guardsman commented.

They were on elevated land, overlooking plain lands of no character. No shrubbery, no trees, no sorts of greenery whatsoever. From the distance, fog obscured the view. Leaving what's ever behind them into the vast reaches of the mind.

│

[System updating… pending… pending… update complete]

—Hi! It's Me! Mamma!—

—Check your panel!—

│

Zesrael recoiled at the text, not expecting the unexpected. But he did as the text– his mother says.

│

| Faction: Imperial Guard |

| Requisition: 1000/+20|

| Power: 100/+0 |

| Squad Cap: 2/6 |

| Vehicle Cap: 0/0 |

│

—I know I said that your armies directly translates to your strength but that's kinda boring for your story, so I spiced it up a bit and gave you a separate system for your factions and armies. Your own Dawn of War system!—

—Mods not included 😏—

│

(A/N: Great, more shit for me to keep track of.)

A different panel, more like a hud that showed resources, buildings, abilities, and a map which is darkened except for a small circular area that has two green dots in the middle of it.

│

—I see you found the map, areas that are darkened are in the effect of Fog of War, anything outside of your vision range you won't be able to see. You or your units can disperse a portion of the fog by moving towards it– you'll see later.—

—Oh, you see those purple dots scattered around the map, those are strategic points. They're points of interest that, when captured by units that can capture points, will grant you vision and increase your requisition gain.—

—Try it!—

│

Try it? With what? Even Zesrael is in the same mindset. There was no other text aside from the previously shown. But glancing at the sergeant, it didn't take long for him to plug the two together; now the question is: how?

He tried verbally–

"Capture point."

The guardsman just looks at him.

He tried showing–

Holding on to the guardsman's hands, he led him to the strategic point just a walking distance away. Even pointing at the strategic point, the sergeant just looked at him in question of what he meant.

Then Zesrael tried mentally ordering him. It was different, like a mouse hovering over the strategic point; and as if on instinct, he 'right clicked.'

The sergeant just nods in acknowledgement towards Zesrael. Taking an imperial flag out of nowhere, he stabs it in the middle of the strategic point. He then salutes it momentarily with his left hand, dropping it, feet shoulder width apart and left arm behind his back while the right is on his side, he stares at the flag as it rises.

An empty bar slowly fills with bone–white color, indicating the length of time before fully captured.

│

—Nice! Now, let's get you a proper base. For the IG, you'd need a Field Command which is your HQ of the base. Normally They'd be 700 requisition and 150 power, but I'll lower it to 500 and 50 respectively.—

—Try building it now 🙂—

│

"–This is going to be a long day," Zesrael deadpanned.

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Took awhile to get used to, but he came around at the end of it. Mentally ordering and building his base, he was left with a fully functioning Field Command, two Plasma Generators, and a Infantry Command building. Took a bit of time to build, thankfully his mother gave him a singular Techpriest engineer so he could even start it in the first place. Lately, he's been thinking about the free hand outs, opting to silently vow to his mother that he'd repay her by gaining the experience that he needs for her to retire. As he waited for the buildings to finish building, he ordered his singular sergeant to capture the last two remaining strategic points around his base.

He wanted to go out into the fog of war, but it was ill advised by his mother. She stated that the strategic points were guarded by foes he previously defeated by his own hands– so the boars and wolves and wild dogs were waiting for him at each one in this vast landscape. As if the further he went on his map, the map procedurally generated extensions to the already vast lands.

There were new points of interest too, he saw different color points on the map the further he scanned ahead. Orange were critical locations, yellow were relics, and pink were slag deposits. They were still far ahead so Anastasia didn't bother explaining, but she did say that the relics were something he'd have to acquire eventually if he wanted the big boys for these factions.

Anastasia noted that every seven days there would be an invasion force that would try to obliterate this faction's base– as well as all factions he's come to befriend later on. The force's power is relevant to his base advancement, strategic points secured, and the territory he has control over. His number of units don't affect the difficulty of the invasion force. Another note, if multiple factions reach seven days, the invasion happens simultaneously. Meaning when one faction gets invaded, the others do too. All due to the fact that when a new faction builds their base in a semi-separate plain, the days reset to zero.

Speaking of units, ever since building the Infantry Command, the emblem on the sergeant changed as well as new 'buttons' appeared on the hud. The weapons were grayed out so was the sergeant emblem, but an illustration of two golden plusses were colored and active. Come to find out, the sergeant was a leader unit that was part of a whole guardsman unit that cost 20 requisition each to reinforce. Since he has 45 requisition points left, he reinforced twice. Two normal guardsmen blimped out of nowhere into existence, both confused until they laid their eyes upon the Chosen. The entire ordeal was then left in history as the sergeant let them know the current agenda.

Anastasia left another remark to keep his soldiers alive as long as possible as well as expose them to dangers as long as possible. The more the squads fight and survive, the more veterancy they'll get. Veterancy acts as a way to keep units relevant throughout his life. The higher the squad's or vehicle's experience, the tougher and stronger they are.

Morale was a factor Zesrael was introduced too. When the morale of his troops drops to a certain threshold, their efficiency drops as well. Less shots will be hit, they take more damage, they do less damage, etc. They won't ever run away as that's not an option unless you give them the option too. But it's best to keep their sanity healthy; that way you'll get the best results in whatever you order them to do. Keep in mind, some units don't have morale issues.

There were other things he took notice of: their melee damage, ranged damage, the squad size that went up to three out of nine, and the weapon upgrade cap. How the melee and ranged damage would correlate to reality– he doesn't know– but at least he knows how they stock up on ammo and supplies now. At least when they're summoned outside of this realm, they're ammo and previsions deplete when used and then have to go inside the Infantry Command building to stock up. Zesrael formulated this theory when the sergeant entered the infantry building and came out all of the sudden; Anastasia confirmed his theory via text.

On a side note, Zesrael once tried entering the Field Command. But to no avail as a seemingly open door prevented him from entering like the cave to the wolves last time.

Back on track, supplying and resupplying advanced weaponry for the infantry units requires research buildings and the completed research, of which then the weapons themselves would be available in the Infantry Command.

As his requisition reached five points, Anastasia gave more details as to how his 'currency' worked. Even though in-game resources were given to you by seconds, in reality, it was by days. His plus whatever resource would accumulate however many days he doesn't visit and would all then be collected the moment he steps foot in his personal dimension, like those afk games on your phones. Whenever he has more than one faction going, all their resources are accumulated under one pool; and he can use them to any faction he wants that has a base going.

Finally, the unit caps. For the Imperial Guard anyways, the more Infantry Commands and Mechanized Commands you build, the unit caps for squads and vehicles increases respectively. Not here, here the only way to expand his army is to expand his territory by way of strategic points.

Other than that, it's just as the game plays. Expand, defend, research, upgrade, and purge.

With nothing left to do, he left this dimension; leaving his lone guardsman squad too.

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│

| Faction: Imperial Guard |

| Requisition: 1000/+32 |

| Power: 100/+20 |

| Squad Cap: 2/6 |

| Vehicle Cap: 0/0 |

│

| Title(s): The Ever Chosen￤Chosen Warmaster of 40k |

| Skill(s): Inventory￤Fusion￤Login￤Omni Travel￤Personal Dimension￤Summoner￤Chosen Sharpshooter￤Language of the Chosen￤Serene Mind |

| Item(s): Yharnam Hunter Set￤Chain Knife￤Godwyn-De'az Pattern Bolt Pistol |

| Stats: | Stat Points: 0 |

––––––––––––––

Strength: 23

Agility: 26

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Energy: 29.5/29.5

––––––––––––––

│

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"What happened?" Zesrael asked Anastasia.

│

—?—

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"To the system text… thingy…"

│

—Ah, yeah– deleted that program. It was a self–automation program with its number one protocol being you. To help you rise and succeed. It was turning sentient– which is not the problem. The problem was it was turning into a girl.—

│

"?" Zesrael tilts his head.

│

—Oh, stay as cute as you are! Don't worry, the system itself will function normally, I'll just be able to see what you see now 🙂—

│

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Back to the familiar green shrubbery, days passed as he hunted continuously the same damn boar, the same damn wolf, and the same damn wild dog. As for his faction's progress, he did nothing with them; at least in terms of expanding.

For the first seven days, he bulked his requisition gain by waiting and building listening posts on two of his captured strategic points, bumping his requisition gain by 56 per day. On the seventh, a single wave of boars and dogs and wolves came. He and his single guardsman squad (now four units in due to leftover requisition) wiped them out.

His second seven days, he saved up for two days to build his last listening post, bumping his requisition gain by 66. Saved another four and built the third Plasma Generator, as well as used his remaining 140 req. to upgrade a listening post nearest to the entrance of the base. Reinforcing the guardsman squad from four to six, as well as having a more secure place to hold their ground made the invasion even easier even though the 'pack' increased.

His reality game took a pleasant turn after two weeks. He leveled up to 23 thanks to the invasions and his nonstop grind out in reality. Sleep was something he dabbled when his body responded negatively to even moving a centimeter. It was to the point that even his mother had to intervene with forced nap time on her lap, they both enjoyed it.

Then on the second day of the third week, Zesrael stumbled upon a door. It radiated ominous energy. A singular door in the middle of the grassy field. What else spouts 'danger' like that. It was tall, 15 ft. in height. Looked heavy too, heavy to push at least. Nothing else was attached to it as Zesrael circles it and no comments or guidance from his mother too. But there was only one way to find out.

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│

| Faction: Imperial Guard |

| Requisition: 0/+72 |

| Power: 325/+30 |

| Squad Cap: 2/24 |

| Vehicle Cap: 0/6 |

│

| Title(s): The Ever Chosen￤Chosen Warmaster of 40k |

| Skill(s): Inventory￤Fusion￤Login￤Omni Travel￤Personal Dimension￤Summoner￤Chosen Sharpshooter￤Language of the Chosen￤Serene Mind |

| Item(s): Yharnam Hunter Set￤Chain Knife￤Godwyn-De'az Pattern Bolt Pistol |

| Stats: | Stat Points: 0 |

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Strength: 28

Agility: 26

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 12

Energy: 44.5/44.5

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