Claiming the castle and leaving thorugh the secret passageway

The vulpin's name was Willow. He was using the castle as a refuge for the time since they were planning on moving when winter came. He was living there with his family, foraging and hunting around the forest. He had his wife and three children in there.

"You need to leave," told River, his wife, when we found them right outside of the throne room.

When she heard what happened she looked confused about how to deal with the situation. The way her eyes seemed to look at me and her husband, how her eyes trembled, was telling me she was feeling frustrated about her situation. She was probably not happy with what her husband did, but still decided to get on his side.

"I don't plan on staying for long" I explained "I won't even ask for supplies. Just tell me where is the secret passage and what direction to take towards Jumbo village."

She hesitated for a moment. Willow nodded, I could tell she did not want any more trouble.

"We would be like them" she then added "I saw how they were dragged by rope to serve that captain. I saw them turned into his slaves in the village. I don't want my family to go through that"

I stood there for a couple of seconds, studying her and her body language. She was not looking at me in the eyes when she said that, I could tell something was heavy on her soul, a similar view was on Willow's gaze.

Those words were not for me, were for themselves.

They departed to do their own business after they explained to me about a storage room on the lower floors underground, completely wary of me when we parted ways. I had to do the same.

As I was preparing to leave, a small sound played and I saw a screen flash before me.

[New Message]

[From: NULL]

[Go to the throne room and inspect the seat with your System]

I was doubtful for a second. I did not know there was a messaging system in place… or maybe is one of the features Selene mentioned that got gutted out of the system by the gods. How did she call them? The Kals.

Probably from her, I hoped. That would mean she is constantly observing me.

Wait! I can communicate with them through my mind! I did just that.

"Dara! Kali! Nayleth!" I started calling their names, seeing if they answered "Maple?! Reynard?!" I tried to communicate with the children too.

[Not part of a faction with a Communication Stone nearby]

A message appeared in front of me. It left me in the dark as much as I was before I saw it. I should have asked more questions while everyone was around instead of having to discover everything by myself.

I attempted a message. I found the menu and saw Kali and the rest in the contact list, but their names were greyed out. I attempted to go to Kali, but an error appeared.

[ERROR: CHOSEN USER SYSTEM'S NOT COMPATIBLE]

This was getting annoying.

I went into the throne room and walked towards the seat where Kali would normally sit, looking down at everyone. Somehow I was missing her smug attitude.

I opened my system screens and looked towards the throne that was destroyed and all of its remains were left around its usual spot. A small screen was on top of it.

[Demon King's Castle]

[Current owning faction: None]

[Building type: Castle, fortress, faction headquarters]

[Building level 1]

[Current upgrades: 2/3]

[Upgrades: Communication Stone Lv1 (0%), Expanded storage Lv1]

[Take over the building?]

[YES NO]

So I could claim Kali's castle for myself? How would she react if she found out I took it for myself? I was not sure if I should, fearing the possible retaliation from the Demon Queen.

I still pressed yes anyway. I would deal with her later.

A pulse of energy came from the throne and filled the whole room. Then the pieces of the seat slowly reformed and repaired itself, returning to its former glory.

New information appeared.

[Current state: 23%]

[Resources required to repair:]

[Stone: 12360/156789]

[Wood: 16789/98078]

Big numbers! No wonder the place was always in a state of disrepair, she probably could not afford to keep everything up and running without running out of resources for maintenance.

Then I noticed another message.

[Time before claim expired state of disrepair: 2 weeks, 4 days, 12 hours]

[Repairs must be made manually. If the current state of the building does increase over 50% and time runs out, the claim will be removed and it will start to deteriorate]

I was not going to deal with that all by myself. The amount of resources needed to repair the castle at level 1 seemed to be too big. If Indidnit alone I would go crazy and lose a lot of time.

Leaving that behind, I managed to find a map of the castle, showing every part of it on what appeared a 3D hologram or similar. It showcased every room, all of them with different shades of red except for a couple and their current state. On the top level was the Communication Stone, which was completely damaged and not working. I suppose repairing it should be a priority.

On one part of the main floor, a group of yellow dots appeared in a specific room that seemed to have been maintained by what the System was telling me. Its color was not red, different from every other room. [Unknown partu] said on top of them, and it gave me the option to decide how to mark them. Intruders, allies, or allowed to be inside.

Those must be River and Willow with their family, and probably they were using that room as their house.

I sighed and then decided to choose the option to allow them to stay for the moment. I was hoping that said choice was not going to cause me trouble in the end.

Now for the secret passage. On the map, it was in the storage room River and Willow told me about, right on a corner. I made my way there.

The storage in question was holding mostly alchemical materials, but the majority were rotten or not usable. There was a menu to check it through the system, and it showed that there was mostly [Rotten Item] there. Probably some plants that went to a better life. Or worse.

I did find a couple of useful stuff. A small backpack that gave me some space for stuff and a couple of potions.

[Potion of Invisibility LV2]

[Description: Potion with the capacity to make the user invisible for [2] minutes or until they get discovered]

[Alchemist: Nayleth]

[Healing Potion LV2]

[Description: Heal small injuries for [115] points of HP]

[Alchemist: Nayleth]

I better give them a good use. These seemed to be more advanced than the ones we used with Dara, probably something he managed to make before we started to run out of resources.

"I can't believe I am missing them," I said to myself while I made my way through the fake wall.

What was I going to find on the other side? I was not sure, I did have no way to know for sure. The passageway was dark, cold, and wet. I was passing right under the castle and towards the woods. Mice and other vermin ran past my feet from time to time.

"I hate this" I mentioned, trying my hardest not to hit anything.

Some boxes, broken and empty, were on the way. I stopped at each one just to check for anything useful, but it was either plundered or the box was discarded on the way.

But what was my plan once I reached the village? Even with higher stats, mine were still close to the average level and there was no way for me to take on an army. But maybe there is something else. I was doubting all the complete system did differently was a message system. There must be something else.

I saw one of the rats eating the carcass of another and didn't seem to be bothered by my presence. Something weird went through my mind when I looked at my sword. Would it give me XP points?

I swing my sword at it and kill it in one hit. [50] points of damage, and it dies. [+15 XP]. It was a small amount, but there were several vermin around. Instead of just walking, I decided to kill them on my way.

And what should I do with the last 2 base stats? [DEX] I increased my [DEX] by 2 points, leaving me in [12] points. By level 10 I would have 24 points total.

And when I reached the end, I had managed to kill enough rats to get to Level 2.

[Level 2]

[HP: 132/132 MP: 110/110]

[STR: 11 DEX: 13 INT: 11]

[AIM: 11 DEF: 11- RES: 11]

[+1 Skill tree point]

Maybe is just a bit, but I was more powerful than when I started.