Atticus's Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground

Chapter 1510  Lessons

Atticus and Whisker appeared at the edge of their territory in a flash.

Though he had felt its vastness, it was only when he traversed it that he realized how truly big the territory was. The people hadn't even occupied one third of its size.

'It's them.'

Atticus narrowed his eyes at the army camped at the front of his territory. Their numbers were vast. From a glance, he could tell they entered into the millions.

They were arranged in neat, layered squares, each unit perfectly aligned. Their armors and weapons looked sleek and futuristic, with visors covering their faces. A bulk of the soldiers carried what seemed like plasma guns. 'Citizens,' he realized.

Compared to his people, their civilization looked far more advanced.

"Atticus Ravenstein!"

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the shout. He traced the bellowing voice to the center of the army, where a giant man sat very comfortably on a large palanquin lifted by hundreds of soldiers, all of them visibly straining under its weight.

The shout rattled the palanquin, causing it to sway as the carriers struggled to keep it steady.

The man, god, Atticus realized, clicked his tongue, muttering something irritably under his breath. As the palanquin finally stabilized, he turned back to Atticus, then grinned.

"I, Gorvath, have come for your head! Accept my challenge now!"

'He's here for the bounty.'

The man was a true giant. He wore an armless suit and shorts, each one looking moments away from tearing under the pressure of his bulk. His muscles were enormous, thick, round, and jutting like carved stone.

 His skin was a deep brown, and his entire frame looked sculpted purely for brutality.

His champions looked like miniature versions of him, with giant bodies stacked with heavy muscles.

'Not a major faction.'

Atticus only kept tabs on the major factions, and for good reason. To reach the top, only those giants at the highest level mattered. Everyone else had never been of interest.

Still, with the current uncertainty, he was forced to take this matter more seriously.

'Territory challenge.'

The moment he received the sudden challenge, he went through the rules again to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Now that territories were being treated like real nations, the rules for capturing them had changed. A challenge had to be issued first before any clash between territories could begin.

Acceptance was mandatory, as stipulated. A random theme would then be selected for the challenge, based on several factors that hadn't been explained. But Atticus imagined, given their territories, that it could very well turn into an army versus army battle.

The image of his bone wielding, fish brandishing, whining citizens flashed in his mind, and Atticus felt his heart pound.

'We'd lose.'

"What do you think?"

Whisker gave the army a look, then shook his head.

"Doesn't look good," he said. "The balloon's will is definitely stronger and more vast than yours. Fighting him head-on will be a mistake. The random challenge might benefit us in this case. But…"

"But if the challenge is between our two armies, then we're done. Yeah, tell me what I don't know."

"Relax." Whisker chuckled. "Being a genius is a process."

Atticus gave him a look, and Whisker threw his arms up.

"Alright, alright. I say wait until the last minute to accept."

Atticus motioned for him to continue.

"I'm sure the Verge isn't so brutal as to allow multiple challenges at once. Leaving the challenge open will stop other bounty hunters from issuing you challenges for as long as possible. In that time, you can build your army as fast as you can before the fight."

"That's actually smart…"

"See? You can't rush genius." Whisker flicked his hair, but Atticus ignored him, already thinking about their next move.

"Let's go."

Without even so much as a word to the god and his army, Atticus vanished from the sky and appeared in the middle of his territory, where he immediately summoned the others and informed them of the current situation.

"What! How dare those bastards!"

"The great Ozerra will show them their place!"

Ozeroth and Ozerra erupted, bursting out in golden lights. They both began marching toward the army. It took great effort before Atticus could stop them and convince them to stand down.

Afterwards, he explained their course of action.

"Don't worry, bond, I'll whip them to shape!"

Ozeroth grinned, clearly enjoying the idea of ordering people around.

"Thank you, but I'll need everyone on board for this to work." Atticus glanced at the others, who nodded at him with serious expressions.

"You can leave it to us." Anorah said. They immediately set to work. Their first task was figuring out how to raise their territory rank and make the people more… army worthy.

Atticus began with random tests. He pulled out armors and weapons from his storage ring and tried fitting the citizens with them. The others did the same. But everything was far too heavy for them. Items children on Eldoralth could use without effort were impossible for these people to even lift.

Atticus didn't stop. He kept experimenting. After a few trials, he finally understood.

The people behaved like normal people.

They had no knowledge of advanced tech or artifacts and couldn't use anything beyond their natural capability. But they could easily pick up a club or a basic sword. That made Atticus narrow the problem down to their innate abilities.

To solve it, he taught them how to manipulate mana. Their talent was outrageous. They awakened almost instantly. Their advancement speed was no less insane, within a few hours, the first group he trained had already reached the intermediate rank. It was unbelievable.

Encouraged, Atticus tried something even crazier. He taught them everything, fighting methods, multiple mana arts, and even efficient killing techniques. They absorbed every single thing at a ridiculous pace.

He updated the others, and they immediately taught their groups using their own specialties. Magnus with lightning, Anorah with light, and so on.

As they advanced, Atticus was glad to see them able to equip some of the artifacts and weapons they couldn't before.

The teaching spilled into every other sector. He taught the chefs more recipes, gave the farmers advice on how to improve, and even provided machinery. He discovered that each citizen had boundless talent as long as it was in their respective roles. He tested it out by asking a chef to fish. Even after teaching him, he had failed splendidly.