Six months went by quickly.
Marvel and the group were busy to their necks at this time.
The old makeshift city walls were demolished together with the old buildings, the imperial palace, and other important institutions for a gradual rebuilding effort.
With supernatural powers and Reiki, comprehending new abilities to help with demolition and construction wasn't hard at all.
The former Knights and Mages worked hand in hand, while the remaining free hands helped clear the surrounding areas and rivers all the way to the water borders.
The goal was to build a total of thirteen cities large enough to accommodate a total of 5 billion people.
In the meantime, the Thirteen Guardians were acknowledged by the Emperor and conferred legitimate titles in public.
Marvel refined his guild plan once again and changed his approach. Instead of a guild with high requirements for maintenance, logistics, and manpower… he established an academy.
It was called Pandora, an academy to teach magic, Reiki cultivation, and similar fields.
The first year, they would accept students regardless of age and gender. However, from the following year, only children at the age of six would be eligible to join.
Anyone who joins the academy would receive a symbolic student ID, because joining the academy would grant them the ability to farm experience points from killing enemies.
Marvel and the rest discovered that while humans could too harness Reiki naturally, their talents for it were just too poor; not worth mentioning.
Having experience points as a catalyst in-between would smooth things over.
Other than getting the Headmaster title, Marvel was also coronated as the Imperial Teacher, responsible for nurturing the children of the Emperor.
If his presence in the academy wasn't needed, he would always stay in the imperial palace in a specially prepared courtyard.
As for his twelve guildmates, each was conferred the title of a Vice-Headmaster and a nominal Duke.
If they decided to adopt children or have their own to pursue either political or military careers in the empire, the Emperor didn't care at all.
Just like that, half a year later, thirteen cities were built.
…
Imperial Capital, Pandora's Main Academy.
Marvel stood behind a window at the top floor of the administrative tower. This floor was reserved for the Headmaster and his second in command.
Watching as thousands of able men, women, and young children enrolled into the academy to learn delighted him greatly.
Of course, he wouldn't teach them personally lest he exhausted himself to death.
All standard knowledge was pre-recorded into projections by Reivera, and after teaching them the basics, they would leave on a great expedition to the sea.
Fighting, killing, and farming experience points to grow was much faster. With their intelligence and comprehension, humans could survive on their own.
In essence, the academy was just a platform for now.
Perhaps in the future it would host credible and worthy teachers to guide students, but this first year of learning was fated to be a bloody one.
As he watched the hope for humanity's rise lost in the vigor of youth, Marvel turned from the window and returned to a secluded room.
Other than Loki and Jinn, everyone else was immersed into understanding Reiki and how to create new abilities.
Marevl, as the leader, can't fall behind.
…
Southern Sea Border.
Loki, the assassin and Jinn, a sacred knight floated above the coast.
Loki smiled and said, "Let me try a new ability I synthesized; Life Detect! I worked on the foundation of my previous Hunt ability to come up with this one!"
As Loki spoke, he closed his eyes and spread his senses into the sea.
Immediately, he discovered thousands of life signatures. Furthermore, he could determine their levels based on the density of Reiki in their bodies.
The group had long since dissected the levels of power in God's Ultimate Fantasy.
There were four general scales of power, or as one might call them, four major realms.
Ordinary (Lvl 0-29), Low-tier (Lvl 30-59), Mid-tier (Lvl 60-89), High-tier (Lvl 90-119), and Ultimate-tier (Lvl 120+).
Each tier was a qualitative leap in life structure, little by little approaching the ultimate evolution.
"There are plenty of monsters, but with my large scale debuffing and your large scale buffs, we can even the playing field a little.
"Although it wouldn't be an easy win, and they'd suffer great casualties, Reivera had already marked them with a revival ability to save their lives."
"They don't know that yet," Jinn chuckled darkly, unfitting a sacred knight.
"This will help us was the gold from the sand. Conviction to face death head on and laugh is what makes a fabulous knight!"
As Jinn spoke, he used a common large scale knight ability: Taunt.
In an instant, within a radius of ten kilometers from the shore, marine creatures rose to the surface in droves.
"Prepare for the attack!"
Someone shouted from below, behind him stood tens of thousands of battle-ready comrades.
With the blessing from the guardians, killing enemies grants strength. Although they never tested it, no one doubted the authenticity of the claim.
Jinn followed by a massive area buff for stamina, strength, durability, and health.
Loki cast large area debuffs and status ailments for blindness, paralysis, bleed, and confusion.
Then, the two sat cross-legged in the air and watched with excitement as the two forces clashed.
It was devastating.
Bloodshot eyes, gritted teeth, and maniacal laughter as the fighters began landing one kill after another.
+13XP! +13XP! +13XP! +13XP!…
Loki straightened up and asked, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Before Jinn could respond, he heard a barrage of questions from the others in the telepathic link channel.
He quickly confirmed their doubts. "It seems that we gain some experience points from them as a feedback. Although it's very little in amount, quantity can make up for quality in a snowballing effect."
The telepathic link got lively for some time before things calmed down. After observing for a while, Loki arrived at yet another conclusion.
"Although they gain Reiki in the form of experience points, much of it is lost during the conversion process. If they don't take the time to settle down, meditate, and refine the Reiki, they'd lose up to 75% of the absorbed energy for nothing."
Jinn also noticed the same phenomena after Loki's input. He frowned, but then he sighed.
"Well, everything has a trade off. This also means that comprehension and innate talent are still vital. A physique that could withhold Reiki from dispersing is a sign of innate talent.
"Moreover, I feel like we need to tailor some abilities—let's call them magic, just to teach them how to harness Reiki efficiently. This will be a tall order, but the investment is worth it."
Like that, a full year three years rolled by.
With the help of supernatural abilities, now widely recognized as Magic by the Pandora Academy of Magic, the embryonic form of human civilization was shaped.
The Emperor was stationed in the imperial city together with the Crown Prince, while the remaining princess and princesses were distributed throughout the remaining twelve large cities.
Each city was the heart of a province, surrounded by counties and towns governed by nobles. These fiefdoms were granted to those with merits and a sense of responsibility during the times of despair.
The Main Academy and its twelve Branch Academies started accepting students with a strict acceptance criteria from this year.
After trail and error, Marevl realized that handing power indiscriminately to everyone was a flawed concept.
There was always some evil in the heart of man, especially when humanity was suppressed and humiliated for eras.
To avoid a future catastrophe, Marvel advocated for the establishment of schools to teach the principles of being human, distinguishing right from wrong, the six virtues of morality, and critical thinking.
From the age of six to the age of sixteen, a decade of mandatory and free education.
Marvel didn't care about the economic system of the new civilization as that was something for the Emperor and his officials to worry about.
On that note, the Emperor kept urging Marvel to establish trade channels with the Elf Kingdom, Vampire Castle, and Dragon Nest.
At the very least, they needed to secure trade channels through their territories. If valuables and materials circulated only within human territory, the economic system would collapse sooner or later.
Marvel also understood this point, but he wasn't willing to interact with other races given the current militaristic prowess of the human race.
Even though he allowed the Emperor to add the curriculum of warfare to each academy and completely overhaul Jinn's academy into a military academy to recruit soldiers, they still had to wait for the freshmen's batch to graduate.
When the ordinary soldiers of the empire had an average level of 10, only then would Marvel consider outside trade.
Until then, it was better to focus on exploring the sea.
Even if the Empire had no currency, humans can survive on bartering and using grain yields for trade.
And so, the three pillars of education, military, and economy were stabilizing at an alarming rate.
The old machine that is human civilization was gearing up to face the world, and God's Ultimate Fantasy.