Reduce the damage from all attacks by 130.

Reflection - Level 2 11% - Novice

When you are attacked, deal 25 damage back to the attacker, no matter the distance.

Pierces 10% of target's defence.

Troll Regeneration - Level 4 68% - Novice

+10 Health Regeneration a second.

Satisfaction filled Jason as he inspected his skills. During the past three weeks since he began his m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic training, they gained multiple levels. Most significant was reflection's pierce damage. Against monsters or ascenders with any defense, reflection wouldn't deal any damage. Now, though, the true potential of the skill was beginning to show.

It's been around two weeks since the first training session with Olivia, and three weeks since his village began.

Jason closed the screens covering his view and glanced down at his village. No, perhaps it would be better to say town now. His goal of expansion, expansion, and more expansion was coming to fruition. After farm technology was researched, Jason made use of all of the free land around his town.

Large tan fields surrounded the town. A hundred farmers wielding iron sickles worked tirelessly under the sun. A hundred farmers. That was around a quarter of Jason's current villagers being used to farm. The food produced everyday from such a colossal workforce was incredible. Jason had to upgrade his warehouse two times to store all the grain, lest they become spoiled.

With such a large supply of food, Jason began his plan of rapid expansion. Two hundred villagers were purchased. The town was immediately filled to the brim. Jason immediately felt a wave of complaints coming from his connection to the kingdom. His new villagers complained that they had no home.

Sheesh, hold your horses. I'm working on it. Jason used up all of his wood to build over fifty homes. Like magic, the town nearly doubled in size as the houses sp.a.w.ned in. Jason was no architect, so he just used a simple square block design. The layout of the town was reminiscent of modern cities.

The complaints of the villagers fell drastically. The only ones remaining left Jason with a headache.

I want to be a soldier.

I want to be a woodcutter.

I want to be a farmer.

This was what gave many ascenders trouble. Some even ignored this aspect of managing a kingdom because it was too annoying.

Every villager of a kingdom had desires. You could ignore them, and there would be no major problems, but that wasn't ideal. Jason sought efficiency and speed. The pressure he felt was slowly rising in recent weeks. In the alternate past, Jason ignored this mechanic of managing a kingdom. This time, however, he would not do so.

By changing the role of the villagers to match their desires, they would gain a slight increase to their efficiency. A bonus to their skill levels. It might seem simple to manage, but villagers were annoyingly fickle. Their desires changed frequently. And, it wasn't just limited to what job they wanted either.

I want some d.a.m.n alcohol.

This town is a little too boring. Can I get some entertainment around here, huh?!

I don't feel safe enough. Someone might break into my home during the night.

The complaints were endless. Jason could imagine how a G.o.d felt when billions of people prayed to them on a daily basis. The thought left him chuckling. Jason spent the next few hours satisfying his villagers desires. By the time he finished, two new establishments appeared in the town. A tavern which sold alcohol and a theatre which held performances.

In addition, Jason dedicated some soldiers to patrol the town during the night in order to prevent crime. As more villagers sp.a.w.ned in, crime would slowly become a problem if it wasn't responsibly managed.

Now onto the military. Jason s.h.i.+fted his gaze towards the research center. During the past week, he unlocked the archer unit. Horse breeding was currently being researched and would be done in a few days.

Jason had around six hundred villagers, with half focusing on gathering. Almost two hundred villagers were spearmen. With the recent purchase of two hundred villagers, Jason converted a hundred of them into archers. Now he had an army of around three hundred strong. For the third week, this was unprecedented.

After doing all this, Jason's resources were basically depleted. There wasn't anything he could do for awhile.

"Awooo!" Howling came from all directions, interrupting Jason's thoughts.

"How foolish." Jason grinned as he watched a horde of goblins exiting the forest. Several wolves accompanied them.

As the monster horde entered the fields of wheat, they began to set it aflame. This was the problem of expanding too rapidly without building up your defences. If Jason wanted to build a wooden wall around his entire farmland, it would require tens of thousands of wood. He just didn't have that much wood at this stage.

But it wasn't a problem. How many soldiers did he have? Around three hundred. How many monsters were there? Just over two hundred and fifty. The wolves would be a bit of a problem, but that was where spearmen excelled.

Instead of fighting atop the wooden wall surrounding the town, his soldiers rushed out in all directions. A human could already fight a goblin one to two. With the fight being one to one, it was a ma.s.sacre.

Some monster horde that was. Jason laughed to himself. He had to thank the monsters for coming to him. Almost every soldier gained a level.

The fires were taken care of as quickly as possible. In the end, the goblins just didn't have enough time to lay waste to the farmland. There was hardly any damage.

It was deep in the night, and he had just spent the whole day micromanaging his kingdom, so he was exhausted. It was time to sleep.

The next morning, Jason awoke to a startling report from one of his scouts.

Level 15 Hobgoblin Dungeon has been found.

Jason jumped to his feet as his face lit up. "A dungeon?!"

This was great news for his army. Much like the dungeons on the thirtieth floor, the dungeons on the kingdom building floor could be entered and farmed for loot and experience. If Jason hadn't found an iron mine to create iron equipment, he would have needed to find a dungeon to acquire loot. There was only one problem: a level 15 dungeon would be slightly difficult for his current army.

Jason flew over to the location of the dungeon, which happened to be about a mile south of the iron mine. The dungeon was above ground, and was located in the middle of a destroyed human settlement. A hobgoblin tribe had taken it as their new home.

Jason opened the interface for the dungeon.

Level 15 Hobgoblin Dungeon.

5/5 Entries left. (Resets Daily)

Maximum of 10 units allowed inside at a time.

Each dungeon run takes 30 minutes.

Once Jason selected ten units to enter the dungeon, he would no longer have control over them. Their chance of success was based on their current level, skills, equipment, and team composition.

Jason selected his strongest ten units, which included Ronald. The team was composed of Ronald, five spearmen, and four archers. Unfortunately, Jason had yet to research magic, so he had no priests. The chance of success would rise drastically if he had one. Oh well. Jason shrugged and checked his chance of success.

With these units selected, chance of success is: 74%.

Jason clicked his tongue. Seventy-four percent wasn't low, but it wasn't rea.s.suring either. The chance was so low because the level of his units were lower than the dungeon. Ronald was the highest level unit Jason had, and he was only level thirteen. Still, a failure usually only meant a few units would be killed. The success rate was within Jason's acceptable level.

As soon as Jason clicked confirm, the ten units that were selected began to head towards the dungeon. When everyone arrived, they entered the dungeon with Ronald in the lead.

Half an hour later, Jason received a notification with the result of the dungeon run.

Failure! Party has been wiped. There were no survivors.

Loot: None.

d.a.m.n it! Jason was exasperated. Didn't it say 74%? The chance of a failure was only 26%, and a full party wipe is usually less than 1%! How could I be so unlucky?

In the alternate past, Jason had failed numerous dungeons. He even had full party wipes, so he could handle losing a few of his units. The problem was that his potential hero, Ronald, was no more. What c.r.a.p luck!