Origin Seeker

Over the next few days, Dream had begun rolling out huge batches of communication bracelets to the Empires and Church. And having been prepared for this, they were quickly distributed.

In the Mercenary Empire, the Emperor had given bracelets to everyone from the top of the hierarchy down. This meant generals, admirals, politicians, government administrators, class 3 combatants, and more. Everyone was quickly given a bracelet, and they didn't have to worry about somebody important not getting one since there were a few hundred thousand that came in. 

This was what happened for the other Empires and Church as well. They gathered everyone and handed out this technology, which upon being equipped, would carry each person through a profile setup. 

This profile setup took everyone's name and assigned them a number. It was similar to a phone, and once they had given the bracelet all their details, they were allowed to attain contacts from others who had this bracelet as well. 

Not even an hour after the bracelets were handed out, Dream was able to see the originally tiny network expand itself by thousands of times. Everyone with a bracelet was a node, and information came in constantly from each one. As long as nobody put the bracelet into their inventory, the bracelet would be constantly active.

Like this, everyone was able to communicate on a scale never before seen in this world. It didn't matter if they were across Empires or across rooms, they could all talk totally unhindered by obstacles.

And as the person who managed the information flow of all these bracelets, Dream was able to hear and see all talks and messages between everyone.

He couldn't really help it though. The people on this world wouldn't be able to use his technology unless he did most of the work for them. So onboard every bracelet was an AI that would help carry them through everything. But in exchange for that ease of use, he would be involved in everyone's communications. 

It didn't necessarily mean he would do anything with that information. It wasn't like he could possibly listen in on everything all the time either. But if the situation ever arose where he needed to use this hidden card of his, he would at least have it. 

Other than the bracelets, Dream had begun construction on a bunch of ships. 

These ships were huge, and Dream estimated that they would be able to carry a few hundred soldiers and their supplies. The ships were enchanted to fly, and since he had the materials, he put reactors in them. Although the reactors weren't as big as he normally made them, they were sufficient to drive the ships at high speeds alongside the flight enchantment

The ships also weren't the most heavily defended. Dream needed to make thousands of these, and it wasn't like he could give each one grade 9 strength. So where he could, he went with the lowest grades possible like grade 4 and 5. These were enough to accommodate the enchantments and not break the bank.

And so, since he didn't want the construction of these ships to take weeks, he personally went and built them in the space factory. And after a couple of days of relaxed work, he had built 2,000 ships, each capable of carrying around 300 people. And since these flying boxes took up so much space, he had moved them down to the planet as he built them. 

While these 2 thousand ships would only be able to carry 600k people at once, it wasn't like they couldn't make multiple trips. And either way, Dream wasn't going to make much more, at least right now. 

Each ship has taken nearly 10 tons of material. That's 20,000 tons of material just for those ships. If Dream hadn't multiplied his resources gathering and processing, he would never have been able to make that many. But luckily he did. His now hundreds of mining teams were bringing in thousands of tons of material each day. So even after making those bracelets and ships, he still had a rather sizeable stockpile. 

The building of the ships and bracelets had never been enough to disrupt his enhancement processes. He was bringing in so much material that even the amount of depleted material was beginning to pile up. He had already begun transporting batches of this depleted material back down to the planet and into some volcanos he had discovered. Hopefully this way the material would be recycled and maybe gain a bit of flux back. 

But either way, he still had lots of high grade materials, more so than he's ever had before. He was even beginning to wonder if he needed help from the Empires at all. Could they provide him with thousands of tons of iron and silver? Each day? Probably not. In fact, those materials would just cycle their way back to them in another form anyway, so he was thinking about just calling off the support they were going to give.

The time he spent to settle the construction of the ships and bracelets took to the end of the week. By then, Dream had given the Empires the millions of bracelets and the 2,000 ships were being stationed at the Mercenary Empire where the armies were. 

After that, he decided to bolster his construction bots again and add another thousand or so to the factory, because why not. He then assigned some to keep pumping out bracelets while the others would construct some soldiers with the surplus materials constantly flowing in. He had a feeling he would need the soldiers in the future.

When all that had finished, his next order of business was going to the animal continent and settling business with the Church forces over there and the other Empires. 

For this, the first thing he did was contact the Pope.

..........

Currently, Dream was in the cabin laying around on the couch with Luna and Iris both sleeping on him. Like this, he called the Pope.

"Dream?"

"Hello, Pope."

Dream smiled as he heard the voice in his head. It was truly convenient, giving these bracelets to everyone. He could call the Pope, the highest-ranking member of the Church, whenever he wanted. 

"So it's you. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Since I'm done with construction I'll be heading over to the animal continent soon. And since you wanted me to wrangle the Church forces over there, I'll need to know how to do that."

"Ah, yes, I was planning on sending a few Cardinals with you so that they can make contact."

"Sweet. I'll send over a ship tomorrow to pick them up. That's when I was planning to leave."

"Very well. They will be ready. By the way, how do you plan on contacting the leaders of the Elven and Dwarven Empires?"

"I know a class 4 from the Spire named Idona. She's an elf, so I was going to have her guide me. As for the dwarfs, I'm not sure."

"Mm. Since that's the case, my Cardinals will help you. The forces we have over there are more than familiar with everything. If you have any trouble, just ask them."

"Will do. And I'm also going to be bringing bracelets over there, so we'll have them on the network too. I'll get them in contact with you once I set them up."

"Much appreciated."

"That's all I had for now. The ship will be there in the morning tomorrow."

"As will my Cardinals."

"Thanks. See you later."

Saying bye, Dream hung up. He had gotten much more casual with the highest ranking members of society after doing so much. Perhaps only he had the ability to be as lax as he was, a result of the fact that he was entirely independent.

"You're leaving tomorrow?"

Luna looked up at him as she laid on his chest. Iris also perked up. She was currently under his head acting as a fluffy pillow, letting Dream pet her tails that drooped over his shoulders.

"Yea. I really wish I could take you two with me, but it's too risky."

Dream sighed. This was a really good opportunity for them to go sightseeing, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Riddick and Selene also didn't want to risk it. It would only take one fox seeing them and reporting them to Raoul for things to go to shit. 

"We understand. You just need to be careful yourself. Especially if you go meet Raoul."

"He won't be able to do anything to me. And if he does, I'm going to have another unhealthy dose of steel waiting for him."

"You're taking those railguns?"

"Of course. They're coming with me everywhere. Plus I've still got my own weapons that're sitting in my inventory. If I really needed to, I'm pretty sure I could take on a class 4."

"Have your stats broken through to the S rank?"

"No, and it frustrates me."

Dream huffed. His stamina, agility, and magic were all sitting at A+. And despite having leveled up from killing those armies, they never budged. 

"I'm probably gonna have to work on my skills if I want to get stronger. That's how it's always been. And I know what direction to go, but it's gonna take a lot of trial and error."

"More experiments?"

"Uh-huh. I'll try to spend some time on this trip messing around with my metals. The Old Man said that the dwarves are good crafters too. Maybe I'll check their magics out some. May be useful."

"Mm. Just don't spend too long over there."

"I won't try. Though when I get back, things are gonna start picking up. The Emperor and his generals are already making plans to invade. You two and your parents may be going over to help out."

"Oh, we'll get to fight demons?"

"Yup."

"My Devour skill had been increasing its level lately. I'm pretty sure if I fought you, Dream, you wouldn't be so passive."

Iris suddenly spoke. Raising his brows, Dream grabbed one of Iris' tails. Iris then activated her skill, and the skin on Dream's hand began to disintegrate. 

"Very nice. I even activated my mana, and it's just eating right through it. How'd you increase its power so much?"

"Denser energy. I've been working my soul a lot, and it led to my mana becoming denser. I can release a mild fog with my mana now. So naturally my skills are more potent."

"Catching up to me are ya? Well good job. If you want, I can leave some of the high grade metals behind for you to eat at. I'll enchant them to give you a bit of a challenge too."

"Alright. For some reason, they taste kind of good. Although not as good as live monsters."

"Probably the dense flux and mana."

"Maybe."

"..."

Luna just laid there and listened to them. Talking about eating high grade metal, some of the strongest materials in the world, wasn't exactly surprising to her. These kinds of conversations were normal for them. 

.........

......

That night, since they weren't going to see him for a while, Luna and Iris made sure to get every last drop of love they could out of Dream. And after several hours, they had finally been satisfied. 

And in the morning, the three along with Riddick and Selene, who had come back the night before, had a delicious Iris-cooked breakfast.

"You leaving today, Boy?"

Riddick spoke as he put a piece of bacon in his mouth.

"Mhmm. My ship is going to pick up the birds right now."

"Birds?"

"The Cardinals."

"Oh, right. What about Idona?"

"The ship is also going to get her."

"Right. So where's your first stop?"

"Well the church has a kingdom on the continent where we're going to get things settled. Once they make contact with the Pope over here then I'll go over to the Elven Empire with Idona."

"Not the United Empire?"

"The Church will go there first to talk with them before me. They have more of a standing anyway."

"Alright. Just be careful."

"Uh-huh. Anyway, I'll have to get going. The ship is here. I'll see you two later. If I ever have some free time, maybe I'll fly back."

"Ok."

Dream gave Luna and Iris a kiss, shook Riddick's hand, and hugged Selene before leaving the cabin, taking a few pieces of bacon with him.

After activating stealth, Dream flew up and out of the dome. He then turned toward a direction and flew off. 

After flying for a couple minutes, he found the ship that was hovering in the sky. He had made this their meeting spot so as to not give away the location of his dome. 

The hatch of the ship opened for him and he stepped in. There were 4 people already there. 

"Hi Dream!"

"Hi Idona."

Dream walked over to Idona and the 6 Cardinals who were in the ship and took a seat. At the same time, the ship activated its thrusters and blasted off into the sky, heading into orbit. 

"You ready Idona?"

"Me? I mean, I guess. I haven't returned since I became a class 4. It's been a long time. I'm not sure how they will react."

"They as in?"

"My family. And the Ljosfar."

"Ljosfar?"

"They're the class 4's and the natural leaders of the light elves. Then there's the dark elves who live under the Tree."

"Why do they live under the tree?"

"Because the light hurts them. At least for the ones who aren't at least class 1."

"Like vampires?"

"Vampires?"

"...Nevermind. So there's light and dark elves who live above and below the tree?"

"Yes. The dark elves have their own leaders called the Dokalfar. The two races are very cooperative with each other as the dark elves bring up many valuable minerals like chlorophyte while the light elves bring down lots of food. The dark elves are also known to trade with the dwarves very often as the two are both inclined toward the underground and minerals. They get along with each other the best."

"Nice. So we meet the leaders of both elf races and then try to bring on the dwarves through their alliance with the dark elves. And it's not like they should be opposed to fighting the demons, so this doesn't look like it will be difficult."

"Shouldn't be. But you never know. Getting them to commit and actively fight may prove a challenge."

"They don't necessarily have to fight. They just need to support, whether economically or militarily. Speaking of, how big are the elven and dwarven populations?"

"Hmm, last I saw the elves were numbering around 180 million. The dwarves should be around 400 million. The elves are centered around the Tree as they don't like to expand much, and the dwarves have their main Empire with many surrounding kingdoms and cities. They're much more spread out and take up much of the northern part of the continent."

"And the United Empire?"

"Not sure. But it's definitely a few times more than the elves and dwarves. They occupy the entire southern half of the continent."

"Ok. That's about what I've seen on the map. Then once we get the Cardinals settled and the bracelets delivered, me and you will head over to the Tree. Sound good?"

"Ok!"

Idona nodded with excitement. Although it had been a long time since she last visited, she was still returning to her homeland. Plus, she was a class 4 now. She wondered how her peers would react. 

Not long after they pulled into orbit, the ship pointed back down and headed straight for their destination. Soon, they were landing inside a large kingdom established by the Church.