《The Wooden Crown [Kingdom Building | GameLit]》


 Chapter 1

    Jake squinted as his computer screen his eyes had become worse over the years and even more so now that he has gone past his usual bedtime. He should probably sleep after all he was well past the age where all-nighters went unpunished. Tomorrow will be a horrible day but that was in the future and he was very much immersed in the present. Or more accurately he was immersed in the final stretch of the 4X game he has been playing for the past year and a half. At this point he lived to play it as with all the other games he chose to drown himself in.


    There was little point to not playing when you have little else to do. He was old and retired with a bank full of cash and little to spend on. All his friends had died years ago and his wives and children had cut him off long long ago. He had enough money to buy companions but he would rather be alone than surround himself with strangers lusting after his bank account. Or more likely surround himself with people he thinks are only after his bank account. He always expected the worst from people. His own actions when he was young and filled with greed made it hard to trust others lest they be the same as himself.


    The clicks of his mouse and the clacking of the keyboard were his only companion. At ninety years old he had no idea how he was still so healthy or even why he was still alive but he didn''t dwell on it. He would indulge himself till the end of his time which currently meant getting perfect completion on every 4X strategy game he could find while living like an old goblin.


    Having been released more than a decade ago, ¡°The Final Crown¡± had bombed hard. Not that it was a bad game per se but its developers were a little too excited with the great AI revolution and chose to make every npc across its game a fully emulated entity. A 4x game where every single citizen of the expansive game map. tens of millions of them were coded like you were playing a simulation game. Safe to say nothing short of a supercomputer could run the game at launch and even those struggled. The game was truly far ahead of its time and now a decade later his top of the line desktop could play it with relative ease.


    He had won as every faction with every known strategy to collect the achievements. Only one final achievement had eluded him. The game wasn''t exactly hard though it was incredibly complex. When playing as the stronger factions it basically played itself the fight was yours to lose which was precisely what made the final achievement so difficult. In a game so unbalanced winning a top rated pvp match as the Wood Crown the weakest faction was almost impossible.


    10 years was alot for a games pvp scene and TFC was a game that created a cult following due to the absurdity of its emulated world. Every player that still played the game had thousands if not tens of thousands of hours on it. Winning a pvp match as the Wood Crown was hard enough against noobs but even the greenest player had a few hundred hours at this point and this achievement needed a victory in a game containing only top 100 players.


    The hardest part of the achievement was actually getting a game that even qualified. With a game as old as it is most of the top players aren''t exactly present most of the time and even if they were the rank scene has gone stale some years back with most preferring to play with friends or modding the game for a better offline experience. It took him creating an entire privately funded tournament to get enough of them playing for a full lobby of 16 to qualify for the achievement. And here he was after a year and a half of grinding through this old niche game at the precipice of getting the final achievement to placate his obsessive soul.


    He had done the impossible. He had led the weakest faction to the top against the best players this shitty game could offer. It was probably because the players were a bit rusty but they were some of the best nonetheless. And finally the 100% achievement platinum banner popped out on the side of the screen. And the dopamine hit came and he basked in it for a minute or two before it inevitably wore off. Now he had to find another game to finish. He grumbled to himself the sweetness of victory all too fleeting, weighed down by the feeling of loss that came from finishing a game most enjoyed.


    He squinted at the corner of his screen. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust in order to read the clock. 5:43am it read¡­. Yep today and tomorrow would definitely feel like shit but at his age everyday felt like shit anyways. This next few would just be shittier than usual.


    It''s time to sleep I guess.. He thought to himself.


    As he moved his chair back and prepared to stand up. Maybe it was the lingering energy from getting the achievement or maybe it was the lack of sleep clouding his judgment but in the end the result was the same. He did the unthinkable act of standing up faster than usual, the last action he would do before his legs unsurprisingly failed to adjust to the sudden act of gymnastics and failed him. He didn''t even have time to think before he slammed his head on the desk and darkness took him.


    Jake woke up to the light burning his eyes.


    ¡°Turn off these lights damn you!¡± He growled as he lifted his arm to block the godforsaken beam.


    How am I alive? He thought to himself then quickly after.


    Who the hell kept me alive? Became the question as his confusion turned into rage.


    He had a ¡®Do Not Resuscitate¡¯ tattoo plastered on his chest for a reason and even had all the legal paperwork framed in his living room. He would sue them oh he would sue them all for this. He would make their lives hell for as long as he lives. That would teach them to be more mindful of others'' wishes.


    His eyes took awhile to adjust after being blasted by the blinding lights which turned out to be the sun shining through the bedside window. He stared incredulously at the room he found himself in. It was a well kept but visibly aged log cabin. Through the window was a sea of massive snow covered pines, the same trees the cabin and most of the furniture were made from given the look of them.


    ¡°What the fuck!?¡±


    He expected to be in some hospital of some kind but this did not look like a medical institution. He looked around searching for some well hidden medical equipment. For all he knows it''s one of those newfangled ¡°nature¡± hospitals or whatshits in some nordic country. Hell''s it could be a gulag in the pits of Siberia given his relationship with some remaining acquaintances.


    He takes a deep breath preparing to sit up. Getting out of bed was always a battle but oh boy does age make it worse. Not to mention he apparently just woke up from a coma he expects things to be much worse this time.


    Slowly he turned to his side, finding the act much easier than he expected. He was up on his feet nearly as fast as when it nearly killed him. He hasn''t felt this good in decades. Whatever this place is, their doctors were good.


    He slowly walked around the room testing his balance taking care to stay close to objects he could grab if his legs failed him. As he moved about he could not help but notice inconsistencies with his body. His hands and feet were still wrinkled old things but they had much more meat in them than he remembered. He was stronger and maybe just a few inches taller too but that was probably because he was able to stand upright for the first time in years.


    The cabin was a single massive square room akin to a studio type apartment, its walls were made of logs that spanned its twenty meter sides. The roof started around two meters up at the walls meeting more than four meters high at the center of the cabin. A large rectangular table dominated the middle of the cabin with fourteen chairs placed around it. six on each length and one on each width. Above the table hung a large white globe a meter in diameter which Jake assumed was an oversized lamp. A large stone fireplace at the left side of the entrance heated the room with smoldering coals. An impressive array of walking sticks were arranged beside the fireplace. Most were plain wooden sticks but some wouldn''t be out of place in a fantasy movie. One was bone white with gold veins decorating it from top to bottom. Another was some sort of steampunk abomination with moving gears and vials of colorful liquid embedded at its oversized circular top.


    On the other side of the cabin was what looked like a fantasy alchemy movie set. Tables filled to the edge with glass paraphernalia to the point he wondered how in the world anyone can untangle them. Dried herbs hung from a wooden grid chained to the ceiling and even more bursting from several cabinets. Bottles of mysterious liquids lined two shelves. And to round out the theme a large cauldron stood on the floor on top of a circular stone stand in the middle of the entire setup. He made his way to the supposed alchemy table.


    ¡°Where the hell am I?¡± Jake asked himself for the nth time since he awoke.


    He thought a look around would give him some answers but this whole setup just increased the questions. For one thing, where were the brands? One would think with all the items in the room he would find something that had ¡®made in China¡¯ plastered on it with a nonsense English word mashup for a brand name but for all he could see every single glassware, woodwork, trinket and doodad in the room was bespoke. In the 21st century that was a feat of its own.


    He knew that the quickest way of finding an answer was probably to walk out of the cabin but without knowing his situation it was best he put that off until he had a better idea of things. If he was a patient here there would be a nurse or a doctor that would check on him sometime. Given the impressive state of his body that would be soon. Comatose patients deteriorate quickly without excellent care and without an IV drip anywhere in site they had to be feeding him manually.


    Before he could figure out a way to gather more information the initiative was taken from him as someone knocked on the front door. He was too far away from the bed and he wasn''t too keen on testing his new found health by attempting to sprint over. Even if he did, he doubted he could trick a medical professional into thinking he was still comatose.


    He ran his fingers through his hair and now apparently grand beard before patting down his robe and standing straight. He might not have any control over the situation but he certainly had control over himself and most of the time that was enough.


    Seconds went by without a sound then another set of knocks. Jake wondered what the person was waiting for after all he was supposed to be comatose. It''s not like he was going to tell her to come in. After a few more seconds passed by until finally a young woman''s voice announced herself.


    ¡°Elder, I''m restocking the embers.¡± The voice said with a respectful tone.


    Jake furrowed his brow in confusion. Was the woman expecting this elder to be in the cabin with him? Or was he the elder? His train of thought didn''t get far as the door knob turned and the door slowly opened.


    A young woman poked her head into the cabin. Her features looked northern European with brown hair and eyes. Fairly nondescript if not for the fact she was holding a metal bucket glowing red with embers with her right hand completely oblivious to what he expected was extreme heat.


    She stood still at the doorway smiling at him before speaking.


    ¡°Oh sorry elder did I interrupt your brewing?¡± She asked, still smiling while scanning behind him towards the alchemy setup.


    Jake was caught off guard by the casualness of the interaction. He was a comatose patient that just woke up and started walking about after what he assumed was quite a long time given he had already healed from what he expected was a horrendous head injury. But if that was the case why is the girl talking to him like she knew him all her life. His mind raced trying to piece together a coherent explanation for his situation.


    ¡°No, I was just stretching my legs.¡± He answered.


    He chose to ride the limited context of the situation for now. If he was the elder then so be it. This wasn''t the first time he got blindsided by a random situation; he just needed to keep his composure and pretend he knew what was going on long enough to get context for firmer footing.


    Jake saw a trace of worry on her face for a moment before she continued her smile and entered the cabin.


    ¡°Everyone is in the hall for breakfast, Elder. Let me just get these embers into the fireplace then we could go together.¡± She started while walking towards the fireplace with glowing hot bucket in hand.


    She tossed the embers into the fireplace with one fluid motion not missing a single piece of ash. She then took a moment to observe the array of staves at the side of the fireplace before grabbing a simple dark wood staff with her left hand and turning towards him.


    She handed him the staff before grabbing his right arm with her left as if supporting her weak kneed grandpa.


    ¡°Let''s head to the hall for breakfast, Elder.¡± she said. Taking charge of the situation and not even asking for his opinion.


    Jake just went with the flow, taking the staff and allowing himself to be led towards the door. He was still very confused about all of it with the short interaction barely giving any context to the situation. The woman was acting like some kind of grandchild-adjacent acquaintance. And the look of worry she showed when she entered the cabin was raising some deeply hidden fears inside him. He remembered that type of face, hells he gave the same sad look before to many of his now long deceased friends. A look of sad worried understanding towards a confused loved one that wasn''t all there anymore.


    Was he not a comatose patient and instead a dementia ridden senile old man? The very thought shook him to his core. He buried the feeling deep, clutching at the belief that he felt far too clear of mind for such horror to be true.


    The door opened letting in a chill wind. The woman picked up what he assumed was a coat hanging at the side and placed it on his shoulders before leading him outside. The cabin was situated on top of a small hill noticeably separate from the other buildings in the sprawling town that stretched from the base of the hill towards the horizon. A short stone fence enclosed the area surrounding his cabin. The entire town looked to be made of the same wood as his own accommodation. Houses were spaced out with small fields in between. Tight roads barely large enough to fit a car snaked along the inconsistent lots. The houses were respectable but nowhere near the size of his now obviously oversized abode.


    Who makes a four hundred square meter single room cabin in the first place. He thought to himself.


    He was removed from his thoughts by the sound of the heavy door being closed behind him. The woman once again took him by the arm and guided him down the steps leading to the town.


    ¡°Watch your step Elder, the thaw had made the steps slippery.¡± she told him while walking a step ahead her hand firmly clamped around his arm in case he fell.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    He fought to contain a frown from forming on his face at what he considered was too much coddling. I could walk down the damned steps myself thank you very much. He had lived most of his life alone and he had convinced himself he wanted it that way. But he kept his thoughts to himself no point making a mess of an already confusing situation. And if his worst fears are true this was some form of dementia village. Although seeing the sheer scale of the town and his cabin at the edge of it lessened his fears.


    There was no way they would leave a dementia ridden old man on top of a hill at the edge of town. Or would they? He wasn''t too sure there were many novel treatments being tested all the time and for all he knew neglecting the elderly was the new trend.


    He scanned the town comforting himself at the fact that there were quite a number of children running about and few elderly.


    He was led down the hill and towards the largest building in town. The hall as the woman called it looked almost identical to the oversized cabin with the largest difference being the intricately carved wooden double doors that lead into the hall.


    The strangeness of his cabin being equal to the largest building in town didn''t quite register in Jake''s mind. Too many years of always getting the best of the best had made such things the norm for him. The size of the cabin might have been unusual but it being the most impressive accommodation wasn''t. If this was a dementia village it just made sense he got the best abode.


    He was led inside the hall. The general structure of the interior was identical to the cabin but instead of a fireplace there was a massive three meter by three meter raised stone firepit smack in the middle of the room bathing everything in its orange light. Pots and pans along with an impressive amount of meat hung on top of the firepit slowly roasting. Tables and chairs filled the entire space with the largest table equal to the one in the cabin placed on a raised platform opposite of the entrance. For all the space in the hall there were only six people present aside from him and his guide. Five of them sat on the main table partaking in a shared meal while an old man sat near the edge of the firepit tending to it with a glowing metal poker.


    The old man by the fire had almost completely gray hair with some fleeting traces of the black it once was. The man wasn''t that old at least compared to Jake. Looking like someone in their early sixties he was fairly young in comparison. He wore a dark red robe not dissimilar to the attire of buddhist monks, several bangles made of a wide variety of materials hung from his arms. His skin was also intricately tattooed with a deep blue ink covering most of his arms in an intricate webwork of tribal tattoos leaving only his face bare. The old man gave a quick nod acknowledging their arrival before going back to stocking the fire.


    As he was led to the main table Jake stared at the firepit as he passed by in confusion. It lacked the painful heat he expected walking close to what was far too much fire for any indoor space yet the wooden roof was not catching fire and the room that seemed to lack ventilation was not choked in smoke and best of all he wasn''t getting cooked alive.


    Was it some kind of high tech hologram? But the hanging meat and stew in the pots were definitely cooking. A high tech hologram paired with a cleverly hidden induction stove perhaps? But that still doesn''t explain the roasting meat.


    Jake frowned remembering how the woman now leading him had just minutes ago nonchalantly held a glowing metal bucket. He was starting to have some serious doubts about this not being an overly intricate dream of a comatose patient.


    The head of the table was occupied by a young man that looked like he was in his late twenties. The others were a bunch of people that were at most a few decades younger than Jake himself. Safe to say they were all old.


    He was led to sit directly to the right of the young man. The young man smiled at him with arms spread in welcome.


    ¡°Elder Elas, you are welcome to join us for breakfast.¡± The man said while gesturing for him to sit.


    Jake¡¯s guide pulled out the chair and helped him sit, taking the coat she put around his shoulders and hanging it at the back of the chair. The young man glanced at her with confusion on his face at Jake''s silence. Apparently receiving a gesture back as his mouth formed an ¡®o¡¯ before going back to a smile.


    Jake¡¯s mind was too deep in confusion at being called Elas to bother with the fact that he was obviously doing a horrendous job at acting normal and everyone and their dog was already aware there was a problem with him.


    The young man stood up from his chair.


    ¡°Let me get you something to eat, gramps.¡± He said with all the familiarity of a family member. Before heading towards the old man near the firepit.


    An old woman with faded red hair sitting at the opposite side to Jake looked up from her meal seemingly noticing him for the first time since he arrived.


    ¡°Well aren''t you quite nice today eh old bat.¡± She spoke while chewing on a piece of meat.


    The young woman that guided him moved close to the red haired old woman leaning in to whisper. A few seconds later the old woman started laughing like she was just told the joke of the century.


    The young man came back to the table with a ceramic plate full of roast meat and what looked like boiled potatoes along with a mug of a dark alcoholic smelling beverage. The smell was fantastic albeit lacking his own blend of strong spices he usually used to compensate for his ailing sense of taste.


    Jake''s stomach growled as the plate was placed in front of him. The young man handed him a metal fork, knife and wooden spoon.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Jake thanked the young man.


    The man gave him a nod in return before resuming his own meal.


    Judging from the fact the young man sat at the head of the table he must be of some importance. Either that or he was the favorite grandchild of the oldies present. Jake didn''t bother to think about it too much; his chances of acting normal were already blown the moment these people acted incredibly familiar. Convincing acquaintances that you are perfectly fine was easy. Convincing family and friends on the other hand was next to impossible. Not to mention that he was at this point fairly certain this was all a dream.


    He chowed down on the meal. If he truly was just dreaming then he will enjoy it while it lasts. For all he knew he would wake up paralyzed in hospital soon. The meat was scrumptious, the flavors so much more complex and intense than he had grown used to. It was like he was young again or at least he thought so. He couldn''t actually remember what food tasted like before his sense of taste started to fade.


    He heard the young woman calling out the door for someone to get something for her. At some point the old woman had stopped giggling and resumed her meal though she continued looking at him with glee in her eyes like he was some kind of zoo animal. Halfway through his meal a young boy came running in with a conical flask filled with swirling gray liquid in hand. His little legs barely pushed him faster than an adult''s casual stroll. Jake barely took a glance at the boy before continuing his meal which caused the old woman to raise her eyebrows.


    ¡°Damn you really are that far gone eh.¡± The old woman said as she stared at him with a hint of gloom spoiling her mirth. ¡°Didn''t think I''d see the day you don''t yell at someone for mishandling your brews. Name is Rikia by the way, hopefully you remember it soon.¡±


    Jake didn''t know how to respond to that so he just chewed his food in silence. He didn''t even know where to begin to understand the situation he found himself in. If this was a dream then great he got to enjoy some delicious dream food. If it wasn''t then it was far better for these people to think he was this dementia suffering Elis or whoever. For all he knew he was in fact Elis and all his current memories were a sham. God knows what old age and head trauma can do to a man.


    The boy ran up to the old woman lifting up the conical flask for her to take.


    ¡°Grandma, Flask!¡± the kid said while bouncing in place with the flask on top of his head.


    Rikia reached out to grab the flask but the child jumped backward and hugged the flask to his chest.


    ¡°Grandma, Pay!¡± The runt shouted with a mischievous grin.


    ¡°Oh you evil little merchant.¡± Rikia grinned at the child. She reached into her robes and magically produced a pair of cookies with a sweeping hand motion of a street magician.


    ¡°A sweet little prize for a sweet little man.¡± She crooned at the child while exchanging the cookies for the flask.


    The child ran away towards the young woman holding his prize up to brag.


    Rikai turned to face Jake.


    ¡°Mug.¡± she said with a grabbing gesture towards his untouched beverage.


    Jake grabbed the mug and handed it to her. Rikia unplugged the flask cork and poured the contents into the drink. The liquids mixed with a viscous fizz that barely stopped before overflowing from the mug. She once again reached into her robe and produced a piece of folded paper. She opened it and dropped the powder contained inside into the drink before flattening it  on the table. She placed the mug on top of the paper as if it was a coaster. Before sitting and placing both palms down on the table.


    Jake felt a strange movement all around the table causing him to glance around but he saw nothing. The others were still sitting around totally unbothered about the impromptu witchcraft taking place on the table they were eating on as if this was a perfectly normal daily occurrence.


    Rikia had her head chanting something but there were no words coming out of her mouth. At Least no words that could be heard. Jake couldn''t describe the feeling but he knew there was something being said that some sense in him could tell and even understand. She was chanting a prayer,  equations and all sorts of descriptions of things all at the same time yet somehow he understood it even made sense to him. She was simply mixing the materials she had placed in the beverage. Materials that very much did not want to mix or even touch. Yet she guided the reaction, layering the push and pull of the mixture into an elaborate tapestry until they had no choice but to mix.


    After about a minute the ritualistic chemistry experiment was done. The mixture now shone with a brown gold color not far from a mixed cappuccino albeit far too shiny to look normal.


    Rikia pushed the mug towards him.


    ¡°Drink.¡±


    Jake stared at the mug for a moment.


    ¡°Are you sure it''s safe to drink this with alcohol?¡± He asked.


    He was no doctor but last he checked mixing drugs and alcohol was not advisable.


    Rikia shrugged at him.


    ¡°Well if it kills ya you got only yourself to blame. You''re the one who told me to do it this way, I''m no alchemist.¡± she said as she stabbed a slab of roast meat with her fork.


    Well that''s that I guess? Jake thought to himself. Elas was apparently an alchemist or some quack. If this mixture was his dementia meds then so be it.


    Jake held his breath then chugged the entire thing in seconds, not daring to give himself time to taste whatever it was.


    Jake heard Rikia talking to the others around the table. ¡°Look at this old bastard. Didn''t want to touch it when I gave it to him but guzzled it like gods nectar after he heard it was his concoction.¡±


    The mixture was nasty like a mudslide mixed with pure menthol, capsaicin and gasoline. His entire respiratory system felt like it got doused in oil set on fire then thrown down a ski slope. He gagged but nothing came and he knew why. Part of the mixture was stopping him from doing so. Damn you Elas and your sick genius. He thought to himself as he dry-heaved.


    ¡°I tried to convince you to put in some honeysprout while making it but of course you didn''t bother.¡± Rikia remarked at him.


    ¡°You could have put something while mixing it with the drink.¡± Jake grunted in response.


    ¡°Honeysprout ain''t free.¡± Rikia answered him matter-of-factly. ¡°Better you sleep it out for a few hours. You told me it would take a day or so to work.¡±


    ¡°You could have told me that before I drank it!¡± Jake spat the crippling nausea and the overall confusion of the day had worn down his patience.


    Rikia snorted. ¡°I wanted to see you squirm for a bit.¡± she admitted with a grin as she raised a piece of roast meat and tossed it into her mouth.


    ¡°Break it up you two I don''t want you slinging fireballs at each other once grandpa gets better.¡± The young man interrupted the emerging quarrel.


    Jake continued to heave and shiver on his seat. He didn''t know when it started but things that were not in his mind had slowly started to emerge. Information, sights and smells, memories his memories just lost now returning to their rightful vessel. Jake realized it now Elas had begun to return the moment he arrived. No it was their return, the memories were still blurry but he knew they were not separate not anymore.


    The young man laid a hand on his shoulder in worry. No, not just any young man, he had a name and Jake remembered it now. He was Baron Rein of Farhaven, the lord of the most far-flung territory within the Eternal Empire.


    Jake tried to give Rein a reassuring smile and succeeded at growling at him.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine Baron Farhaven. The old witch is right I just need to rest¡± He spoke in the most authoritative voice he could manage.


    His show of improving memory brightened the baron''s face. Jake stood up, the concoction and the nausea it came with robbed him of any desire to finish what was left of his meal.


    ¡°If you all may excuse me I have some recuperation to do.¡± He said to no one in particular.


    ¡°Grandpa, let me help you back home.¡± Baron Rein offered while standing up with him.


    ¡°Call me Elder Elas while in your public hall lord Baron. What would you do if a foreign delegate hears¡± Jake corrected.


    ¡°Oh come on! Delegates are never present.¡± The baron retorted.


    ¡°There was a courtier from House Leron fairly recently.¡± Jake pressed.


    ¡°That was last summer gramps.¡±


    ¡°Still fairly recent.¡±


    ¡°At your age maybe.¡±


    ¡°What would the late baron think seeing you like this?¡±


    ¡°My father had a spit pot and smelled like horse.¡±


    ¡°Do not talk about the late baron that way child.¡±


    ¡°Aha! You called me child.¡±


    ¡°Bah!¡± Jake waved his hands in surrender. He doubted Elas would have made that mistake but the day or two needed for the concoction to take effect was no lie. He was operating with fragments of the whole.


    ¡°Still no. You have duties lord Baron duties that are already piling up as we speak.¡±


    Jake denied the baron firmly this time. They both knew he was too busy to be wasting time here. Honestly Jake was surprised he even decided to eat in the main hall. The first days of spring were some of the most administratively hectic days of the year for Farhaven. The infrastructure needed to be checked and repaired, the fields cleared of last year''s blessings to make room for new ones, material for said blessings accounted for and the mass rituals that the baron had to personally officiate as the lord of Farhaven. Safe to say there was no shortage of work for the lord of Farhaven. It would take weeks just to anoint the newborns with the vitality of spring.


    Rein''s shoulders slumped. Jake didn''t know if it was due to his refusal or at the reminder of the mountain of tasks that awaited him.


    Jake saw the young woman who guided him stand up from the table..


    ¡°That is a no to you too Baroness Lia.¡± Jake preempted her.


    The baroness grabbed his coat which he forgot was still on the back of the chair and tossed it at him.


    ¡°What makes you think I want to?¡± She pouted.


    ¡°I know so. You should be embroidering the ritual flags by now if you weren''t trying your best to do everything else to avoid it.¡±


    Having denied the two, Jake turned towards the old man who was still sitting by the fire.


    ¡°And you Finnan, what are you doing making the baroness do your chores.¡± Jake pointed at the fire druid.


    ¡°I still lack an apprentice.¡± Finnan said as if that would explain having the baroness personally deliver hearthfire embers.


    ¡°There are thousands of children in town, go pick one.¡± Jake replied.


    ¡°I already did but she got taken from me.¡± Finnan growled.


    Jake turned towards the baron.


    ¡°You heard it all Baron Rein, you still owe Elder Finnan an apprentice.¡± Jake told the baron while wiggling his eyebrows.


    That should be enough interaction to convince them I''m me. Jake thought to himself as he turned towards the doors.


    Jake slowly made his way back to his house. He made it up the steps huffing and wheezing after taking nearly five times the time it took to walk down. He was beginning to regret not allowing them to help him. But there was no way in hell Elas would have allowed such a thing.


    He stumbled into the cabin now that there were no eyes present neither Jake nor Elas could be bothered to act tough. His everything burned and the continuing nausea didn''t help either. He grabbed the water jar placed on the main table and drank from it without bothering with a cup before making his way to the bed and laying down.


    New Memories were still returning to him constantly. Soon he would be neither Jake nor Elas but some ungodly abomination of both. But for some reason he didn''t feel any dread from the prospect.


    Jake found himself slowly drifting off. He had been awake for scarcely more than an hour but with how he was feeling sleep was the only real option. With no further delay he allowed himself to be taken by the darkness once more. Whether his next waking was as a paralyzed hospital patient or some otherworld abomination he was ready for it.

 Chapter 2

    Jake groaned as he opened his eyes. He still felt sore after his long nap. How did Elas manage to walk up the hill every day? He asked himself and just like that he already knew the answer. Drugs of course it was drugs, Elas was an alchemist and Jake having woken up without their memories did not drink the potions that were placed right in the middle of the shelf where Elas would not miss them.


    Unsurprisingly Elas had not told anyone that he drinks what would be the equivalent of maintenance medicine to maintain his veneer of health. The only reason he gave the medicine for his dementia to Rikia was because he simply did not have a choice. The brew needed to be made fresh and no one else in Farhaven had the needed skills to mix the materials.


    Jake stumbled towards the shelf containing Elas¡¯s potions. He grabbed the potion of vigor he needed for the day and popped off the cork with his thumb. Chugging the entire bottle of light pink liquid Jake¡¯s face puckered up at its surprisingly astringency. He remembered the potion and what it was for but not the taste. Not yet at least. It was obvious Elas¡¯s memories were not complete yet. As expected it hasn''t been a day since he took the medicine.


    The room was bathed in orange light from both the heartfire embers still burning bright in the fireplace and the setting sun filtering through the many windows. The embers would burn for a week more before fading, enough time for the Eternal Empires spring rituals to bring about warmth to start the next crop season.


    At first Jake felt tingling in his muscles but soon it had turned into shaking. He laid down on the floor not daring to walk while the tremors lasted. It wasn''t painful, far from it. In fact it felt like he was laying down on a massage chair as it vibrated and massaged his pains away. The shaking lasted for a few minutes. Jake almost dozed off as the potion unwound his aching muscles like a skilled masseuse.


    Jake stared at the vigor potions on the shelf half tempted to drink another but he knew from Elas that it would be a horrible idea. Potions may be magical but they weren''t miracles. Just like anything in life, too much was poison.


    He stood up stretching his body as he moved around. He felt young again if young meant fifty years old. His joints still hurt but that was way better than everything hurting. He spent the next few minutes walking in circles getting used to moving about. It felt strange now that he basically had two memories about how to walk. It would be best if he could just get rid of Jake''s version as the body was Elas and thus Jake''s memories were less than useless they were detrimental. If only he could pick and choose which memory to keep but no such luck. He just had to get used to this feeling until it felt normal again.


    He looked towards the door. The front of the cabin conspicuously lacked any windows as if Elas didn''t want anyone coming from the village to see inside his abode without having to purposely walk around it. He decided it was better to stretch his legs outside than just mindlessly walking around the cabin. Maybe he could trigger some more of Elas¡¯s memories to surface by taking a proper look at Farhaven.


    Opening the door took much more effort than he expected. The noon sun melted some of the ice and sunset winds refroze them on the doors corners making the already hefty door even more firm.


    Chilly winds greeted him once again as he poked his head outside. The world was still blanketed in white snow. It was the start of spring but this far north spring does not come without help. Far away in the heart of the Imperial capital the Eternal Emperor would be conducting a grand ritual to give blessings to all the land. The denizens of the far north need to conduct their own receiving ceremony to guide the blessing to the towns and villages. And he as the most senior mage in the barony was required to preside over the most complicated rituals.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Jake stared at the massive township that sprawled towards the horizon. Farhaven was placed at the north-west edge of the continent. Its towns and villages carved within the expansive taiga that dominated the continent''s northern regions. To the north was the great northern forest, an ancient growth that stretched the entire span of the continent from east to west. To the south were the more temperate regions where most of the northern empire''s population resided.


    As Jake beheld the rather expansive township before something tugged at his mind. Why does this look so familiar? He asked himself. It wasn''t surprising for Elas to be familiar with the town he called home for the past seventy years but the familiarity stemmed not from him but from Jake. His eyes widened as he remembered. How could he have forgotten when he saw the very same town not too long ago. Perhaps Elas was not the only one who was missing memories when he awakened here or maybe it was because it was on a screen. This town and even his name was the starting location of his last game of The FInal Crown. Farhaven the land built by refugees fleeing from the deteriorating order of the Empire.


    In the game The Final Crown the emperor candidates were chosen by the gods. Their right to rule proved by victory over all the others. The Eternal Emperor, current ruler of the pangea style continent and world which he named Eterna the same name as the dynasty he started. In short Jake was in a world named Eterna on a continent named Eterna which is completely dominated by the Eternal Empire ruled by the Eternal Emperor. Jake couldn''t help but whistle at the man''s obscene ego as he parsed through Elas¡¯s memories for more information.


    How did such a nutjob rename the entire world and continent? He asked himself and this time both Jake and Elas answered. If said nutjob was an immortality obsessed freak that has ruled for two thousand years uncontested it was very possible. Jake¡¯s answer came from remembering the game''s lore while Elas¡¯s came from a more personal place. After all, Elas had served the emperor himself for the better part of 300 years as the imperial grand alchemist. And now at 378 years old Elas was destined to be a champion of the gods in their next great game.


    Elas decided then. Jake was a name without meaning here. Grand Alchemist Elas E. Citrinitas, now that was a name with weight and value. And just like that Jake was no more tossed away by the ruthless calculus of the abomination his memories kept for their unmatched value.


    Elas shook himself awake from his stupor. The last rays of the sun had gone sinking into the horizon now countless stars shone bright bathing the land in a dim blue glow. Elas shivered, he had stood still in the cold for too long. With a snap of his fingers to center his mind he pushed mana into the fire manipulation structure within his mage heart. Magical heat enshrouded his body banishing any risk of hypothermia.


    Just as he finished commanding the warmth he sensed something appearing within his abode. He had a good idea what it was. He took his time walking around his cabin while appreciating the stars before making it back to the door. He knew once he opened it there would be no peace in his future. With a steady hand he gripped the handle and with it his fate. With a firm tug the door opened, spewing forth the warmth of the hearthfire.


    There it was just as he predicted. A wooden crown floated on top of the main table. Its ethereal light promises untold glory and suffering to its fated barer.


    ¡°Just like the loading screen¡± He spoke to himself.


    Elas strode to the table, his back straighter than ever, his steps firm. With a withered hand he grabbed towards the crown. His lips parted as he spoke.


    ¡°I Accept!¡±

 Chapter 3

    Elas felt his world expand. The moment his fingers touched the wooden crown it bombarded him with countless truths some were known to Elas from his time playing the game but the crown''s knowledge went past Elas¡¯s shallow reading of game lore. This was real knowledge not some flavor text written by overworked developers but history of the long past, before the Eternal Emperor imposed his will and tossed it all into the fire. What use was the past to a man who believed that he would rule for eternity. Past Emperors? There were no past emperors. The Eternal Emperor was the beginning and the end.


    Elas saw countless emperors, their dynasties were great, their power absolute. Locked in an endless cycle of meteoric rise and gradual fall. Each one believing their empires were the greatest there ever was and ever will be.


    It always started with an age of myth, times of endless magic. When living gods and ancient dragon kings walked the land. Then there was the golden age bursting with an abundance of all things. At this point most of the emperors would have already died, their crowns passed down to rightful heirs to continue the dynasty.


    Golden age turns to silver as magic wanes but remains omnipresent. Then came the age of bronze when ancient relics of great magic degenerated into more mundane artifacts as the dearth of magic ate at them. Then the long waning begins an age of slow rot until the dynasty collapses and the cycle begins anew.


    Elas saw the current problem plain as day. The other dynasties scarcely lasted until its fourth heir around the time of the bronze age. But the Eternal Empire has never needed an heir. The Eternal Emperor obsessed with his dream of reigning forever had feasted upon the very roots of the world. And Elas and his ancestors had helped him do it. Alchemists striving for eternal life had empowered the emperor to brew the world''s bounty into life extending nectar. Oceans of miraculous elixirs poured into his gaping maw as he raged against time itself. The results were apparent, two thousand years later the Eternal Emperor still ruled the world. The waning had come and gone. The world was now in a desolate age, times never seen since the beginning of the great cycles. And now a new age calls while the god emperor still lives.


    In some ways the Eternal Emperor succeeded. His reign has been the longest grand cycle in all of time. So long that the gods had forced the next lest this cycle becomes the last.


    Elas knew the crown¡¯s knowledge was true and he also knew it withheld from him plenty more. The hand of the gods ever present in the divine artifact.


    Elas sat at the head of the table holding the crown in his hands. It looked as unremarkable as he remembered, just a wooden ring big enough to fit over his head. There were intricate carvings on every inch but they were far too small and shallow to be seen by anyone not pressing their eyes close.


    There was no use putting things off. The moment he accepted the crown he was already bound to it. He placed the crown on his head and waited. Nothing happened¡­ He furrowed his brow. The crown was the in-game explanation for some of the game''s 4X elements like the birds eye view over your kingdom and how you have detailed information on what each subject''s skills, wants and needs. For all the knowledge the crown gave him it did not come with a manual.


    For the next half an hour Elas struggled with the artifact trying to get it to work. In the game everything was just a click away. This was not the game and he was getting increasingly annoyed at the currently worthless divine artifact. He once again for the nth time pushed mana into the crown willing it to awaken just like all other artifacts he had encountered before but to no avail. His mana bounced off the mundane looking wood like it was made of mythic adamantium.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Elas contemplated tossing the thing into the fireplace. Maybe it needed some convincing in order to serve him. The damnable artifact then informed him through their connection that it was functionally invincible as long as he lived. Elas imagined the crown tossing the information at him with disdain.


    Elas tossed the crown into the fireplace. A few moments later it reappeared before him floating while shrouded in its garish ethereal light.


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± He told the artifact before tossing it into the fireplace once again.


    The crown reappeared before him but this time it simply plopped itself at the table with magic disco lights nowhere in sight. For a moment Elas felt bad for mistreating what was one of the most divine artifacts in existence. Then the crown decided to inform him that he only needed to clear his mind while wearing it in order to access its powers.


    Elas stared at the crown for a few moments then he picked it up and tossed it back into the fires. It sat in the embers completely unharmed and this time it decided to stay. Elas couldn''t help but feel like he just scolded a dog and now it''s moping at the corner of his living room.


    He clicked his tongue as he stood up and walked toward his alchemy lab. He was expected to lead the receiving ritual for the emperor''s blessing in two days and he had yet to prepare alchemical reagents to help the ceremony along. Farhaven had far too few mages for its population. If he, one of the most decorated mages in the empire, wasn''t present then most of the fields would remain frozen all year round and the people would starve.


    That was unless old witch Rikia and the coven of Winterroot she belonged to were willing to provide the town with their utmost support. Knowing how unsanctioned ancient witch covens operate they were definitely hiding things from him. Good thing that he had played the north''s campaign before and knew that the two groups were definitely not as weak as they seemed.


    The work that was usually so simple to him had proven to be far more challenging this time around. With his memories so poorly mixed he found his motor skills lacking in the precise mastery he was used to. Many times he found himself knocking things off the tables. Elas cringed at the sound of glass hitting wood as he once again hit a vessel with his elbow while reaching for another. He was thankful for his foresight in having every piece of glass enchanted with toughness.


    It was well past midnight by the time he had finished preparing all the reagents required for the upcoming rituals. He placed the containers of reagents on the main table ready to be carried off.


    He was heading back to bed after what felt like a shift at the assembly line when his stomach growled informing him that he had not eaten anything since breakfast. He looked towards the door then shook his head. The hall would be long closed by now and he rarely even ate there. The only reason Lia had taken him to eat breakfast was due to his dementia. He turned and walked towards a stack of inconspicuous wooden boxes at one of the shelves. Opening one he was greeted by his regular fare. Dark brown bricks the size of an open palm were placed neatly inside the box. Combat rations made of nuts, seeds, honey and alchemical nutripaste type C. He tossed a brick into his mouth it was nutty and sweet all in all fairly pleasant as far as bricks go. He placed the box back onto the shelf. Each bar had enough calories to replace a meal even if it was far from nutritionally complete. The potions would deal with the nutrient deficiency anyway. He told himself. But a part of him was tempted to walk down for breakfast again tomorrow. He grabbed a jug of water and drank it all to quench his thirst after swallowing the compressed brick of calories.


    Elas laid down his bed ready to sleep when suddenly the crown appeared on top of his chest as if waiting for the perfect moment for him to test its capabilities. He sighed pushing his drowsiness away for a few more minutes as he placed the crown on his head and cleared his thoughts.

 Chapter 4

    Elas placed the crown on his head then laid back in bed. The crown told him that he just needed to clear his mind which he interpreted as meditation.


    Elas had done some meditation before or at least he believes he had. He never really felt any form of zen or some other special state of mind others say they experience. He made himself comfortable and controlled his breathing as he tried to empty his thoughts.


    Elas saw himself laying on his bed. An old man with long white hair and beard. His gray robe was messy and stained with a worrying amount of alchemical ingredients no doubt a result of his fumbling about while preparing the ritual reagents. He floated upwards away from his body slowly at first but it quickly picked up speed. He found himself phasing through the roof and soaring into the skies until he could see the entire hill where his cabin was located.


    His hilltop cabin looked picturesque as he observed it from a bird''s-eye view. It truly did look like the game with the entire hill bathed in blue light to denote night-time.


    He could see everything with such clarity which was simply impossible at night. When he focused his attention he could even see a rabbit walking about in the snow and rare non-migratory birds sleeping among the branches of a tree.


    At the height he was currently viewing the hill such details should be invisible to the human eye but the crown''s power was not constrained by mortal vision. If he wanted to, he could count every single snowflake on the hill.


    This is definitely far more detailed than the game ever was. He thought to himself as he marvelled at the sights and sounds.


    What was apparent was he only had a clear view of the hill. Farhaven along with the rest of the world was covered by fog. Elas expected this as it was one of the more unique mechanics of The Final Crown. Unlike most 4X games, few sovereigns in The Final Crown started with a settlement they owned. Elas was not the ruler of Farhaven and so his crown did not have dominion over it.


    Currently Farhaven was the domain of baron Rein while Elas is officially just a member of his elder council. He had left the imperial court more than half a century ago and with it most of his political power.


    Unlike most other 4x games The Final Crown only gave the players vision of their domain and very strictly only their domain. Everything outside of areas they own would be in the fog of war. Players also lose vision of areas they own that become contested. Armies also did not extend the vision range as such one had to rely on reports in order to deduce the situation.


    The game developers sold it as a battle realism feature stating that commanders didn''t have omniscient vision over battlefields but everyone knew it was because they simply didn''t finish the live battle component of the game. There were small battles which they managed to implement but actual large scale army live combat was simply never there. Instead battles were text-based with delayed combat reports arriving to the player based on their distance from the battlefield and the robustness of their courier network.


    Elas wouldn''t know how any of this would translate to this world until he experiences them himself. Even in the game itself it was incredibly complicated to calculate how large a force needs to be in order to contest a region and effectively disable an enemy sovereign''s omni-vision. It was widely believed to be based on the host computers spec with a hard limit at around 200 combatants. How exactly would that translate to this world? One could only guess.


    Elas tried to access the other view modes which he managed by just thinking of activating them. The world turned into a sea of gray, blues, and greens as he entered the mana view. This was primarily for placing buildings and structures that tap into the rivers of mana that snaked through the world.


    The hill was mostly bluish gray denoting that the entire landscape had weak but omnipresent mana. This was far better than the dead gray one would find in most of the world as more developed magical infrastructure tends to redirect the mana rivers into themselves for their own needs. Here in the depths of the northern taiga the bounty of nature although faint was still present.


    Thin blue veins of mana were spread all over the hill, each one leading back to his cabin. The veins were proof that his mana condensing artifacts were working and constantly pumping the surrounding mana into his abode for easier access. The cabin itself glowed green with respectably dense mana. A result of both mana artifacts and the rather impressive amount of magical materials stored inside.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Elas knew a great number of mages that would kill for an artifact that was capable of observing the flow of mana with this ease and accuracy. And this was simply one of the crown''s many powers. Heck in the game this was all just flavor text as having an aerial view and various informative filters was expected for a game with a city building component.


    There was also a water access view showing all renewable sources of water on the hill which was unsurprisingly gray as he was far from the town''s river. Subfaction view showed the territories of sub factions within your own domain. Wind, Temperature, Humidity, Plague, and several other very specific filters were available.


    There really wasn''t much to see given his domain was just a hill with a cabin on top. He will no doubt find use for all of them once he reaches a point when domain management becomes of paramount importance.


    Elas willed the crown''s vision to focus on himself and focused on his body trying to select himself to see his stats like in the game. It worked but instead of bringing up a menu filled with text and numbers his body turned into a gray outline with a complex multicolored shape floating in his chest. The shape was unfathomably complicated in fact he was certain that it went beyond three dimensions. But even so he understood. It was basically an incredibly complex multidimensional graph of all his capabilities and talents.


    This feature was the single most important ability available to him in the early game as he needed to find people that will help him in his quest for world domination. Now he only needed to find a way to get talented people to step into his domain or to get dominion over them so he could observe them.


    The early game centric sovereigns start with territory already under their control and he needed to start his own build up if he did not want to be trampled by their accelerated pace.


    This was even more true for the wooden crown as it just so happens that one of the most powerful early game sovereigns started in the northern regions. The warrior sovereign was an early game menace that starts off as the leader of a warlike northern hill tribe. The war crown which he wields had a grand total of zero economy related buffs and everything in military and personal strength. His game plan was war and his economy plunder. The win condition was steamrolling everyone before late game kicks in and he gets stomped by late game powerhouses.


    The wooden crown was the exact opposite. The faction falls under the late game focused sim city school of strategy. Which meant he was supposed to hunker down and slowly build up his holdings.


    The wooden crown takes this idea to the extreme by having only two abilities. The main ability was a scaling passive that increased the fertility of people within his domain by an honestly absurd amount. The ability was very straightforward. It makes people make more people and the more people there are the greater the bonuses become. Part of the bonus also reduces gestation time to the point that by the late game one could expect a baby to be born in four months or even less.


    The passive sounds extremely powerful and it was. More births meant more mages, more talents and more bodies to throw at the meat grinder of war. The problem was nowhere in that passive was any bonuses to managing and caring for a large and rapidly increasing population which meant it was basically a double sided blade that would implode the faction if not managed correctly.


    People don''t just make babies whenever the option is available so even a fivefold increase in fertility doesn''t translate to the same increase in births. He had to convince people that multiplying was a good idea. Good thing the war and tumult of the coming decades would naturally increase peoples babymaking. As strange as it sounds, hard times tend to result in more children.


    The active ability allows Elas to borrow a portion of his surrounding peoples strength. A powerful ability for sure but the conversion rate was horrendous and if he was traveling with his army then using the ability was essentially weakening his own men.


    If the warrior sovereign was playing optimally then Elas might as well already be dead. There simply isn''t much the wooden crown can do if the war crown rushes Farhaven. Elas had to gamble that the warrior sovereign himself was not a player or at least wasn''t a good one.


    The true optimal strategy of playing as the wooden crown faction was to use Elas to train an apprentice that would replace him come mid game. This was because Elas was not only old but he was too old. He was the only sovereign in the game that starts with a lifespan that was not enough to reach the end game. Life extending methods may not be that rare in Eterna but Elas in particular had exhausted most of his options and the few that still remain would have him derail drastically from meta strategies. It was simply too expensive to extend his life. Not that he had a choice, he was Elas not the wooden crown. There was little point in world domination if he couldn''t rule after it.


    The entire reason Elas had even left the capital was to hunt down materials that could further extend his life. In some ways he was successful having extended his life by decades after he left the capital but that also meant there were now fewer items that could extend his lifespan. Elas starts the game with a little over 10 years left in his life and that was if he took perfect care of his health. There was no way he would have time to be the symbol for perfect healthcare while also conquering the world.


    Elas removed the crown from his head, terminating the vision. He had a lot of things to do if he was to win it all. But for now it was time to sleep. Tomorrow he needed to get properly used to his body lest he mess up the ritual the day after. The game played much faster than his life here. Afterall in gameplay entire days passed in seconds. He had time to plan his next move.

 Chapter 5

    Elas stood in front of the cabin''s main table. His hands were raised in front of him, palms facing down towards the table. The table was covered in black skystone sand, each grain a near perfect sphere a millimeter in diameter.


    The grains of sand danced and snaked on the tabletop rapidly transitioning from shape to shape according to Elas¡¯s will. He glared at the table with his full attention. Scrutinizing every piece of sand daring any to disobey his will.


    Each skystone grain was a tiny fragment of great floating islands that had long since fallen from the sky as the magic of the world waned. Even when undoubtedly a degenerated form of grander materials the skystones were still a sought after magical resource. For one thing they had become the standard practice tool for improving mana control. Their light weight and incredible mana conductivity allowed even an apprentice to practice with them for hours with little fatigue.


    Elas had awoken before sunrise after only a couple hours of sleep which he supplemented by drinking a higher dose of vigor potion than his usual. The gnawing need to make sure his magic had not deteriorated due to the haphazard fusion of two minds had made it impossible to get any real sleep. He had found himself testing his mana control for the past two hours.


    Mana danced under his control, forming the sand into beautiful recreations of the paintings he remembered from his time in the capital and from Earth. His control was immaculate which alleviated his concerns somewhat.


    This result supported his theory that the strangeness he felt while moving was due to having two conflicting sets of memories to take from. He only had one set of memories pertaining to magic discounting fiction stories which was probably the reason his skill in the area was unchanged.


    With a wave of his hands he directed all the sand back to the vial they came from. Now that he has confirmed that he could still control his mana properly it was time for a practical test.


    He walked towards his collection of staves by the fireplace. Each staff was unique in its material and shape. Staves are what one would call a ritual focus. Their material and shape were custom built to aid with the casting of specific spells. The unique shape of each staff head was a cheat sheet that the mage references while casting while its materials help filter the specific type of mana needed for the spell. Staves were to a mage as measuring tools are to an engineer it wasn''t impossible to do one''s job without one but it sure would be far harder and less precise.


    Mages of course had space within their mage heart for keeping their most important spells ready at all times. But using such spell structures causes them to fade and soon enough one had to take several hours to entire weeks just to repair one''s repertoire.


    Elas himself only had four spells in his mage heart all of which were for alchemy. He had a spell for fire manipulation and ice manipulation which were primarily for controlling temperature during alchemy. He also had lesser earth manipulation and a standard kinesis for controlling materials inside his cauldron. All the spells themselves were incredibly versatile as they were general control spells allowing him to emulate most other fire, ice, earth and force spells albeit with much more effort and immense cost compared to using specific spell structures. And with just those four spells his mage heart was at its limit. To be fair, general manipulation spells tend to be several times larger and more complicated than more specific spells.


    He picked a dark metal staff that was perfectly straight and had few adornments. Its head resembled an ominous hand grasping toward the sky. It used to be his combat staff before he succeeded his father and claimed the family heirloom. The staff looked simple because it was simple. It was for casting firebolt, his favored combat spell.


    Fireball was a simple spell that tended to be the very first combat spell apprentices learn. Firebolt was its more complex cousin. Instead of compressing fire magic into an explosive orb. Firebolt heats material, shapes it into a projectile then accelerates it with kinesis. One can technically use anything as material but solids with high thermal mass were preferred. Elas usually just used rocks and soil as ammunition.


    The average journeyman imperial soldier can take a fireball to the face and come out of it horrifically burned but alive. The same soldier would not have a head left if a firebolt hits him. Of course battle mages specializing in fireball could enhance the normally underwhelming spell to an absurd degree but Elas was no battlemage and he had no plans to change profession.


    Elas stared down at his messy robe. There was little point in taking a bath right before he walked around the forest and got dirty again. Nonetheless he grabbed a bundle of clothes from his wardrobe and a potion of warmth from his alchemy shelf. There should be plenty of small streams on his path now that the snow is starting to melt he could bathe on his way back.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Elas stuffed a ration brick into his mouth and drank water as he chewed. He expected this outing to take the better part of the day. Practicing his motor skills until he was confident at not messing up tomorrow''s ritual will take hours. The receiving ritual wasn''t even close to being physically demanding as far as mass rituals go but it was several hours of standing while waving his hands around.


    He grabbed a bottle of salt, sulfur, mercury and a bunch of other mundane ritual materials and stuffed them into a cloth bag with his clothes. He was not going to waste actual precious material for his tests so these would do.


    Soon enough he was standing outside the door staring down at the town. Upon seeing the main hall from afar Elas could not help but be tempted to go down for a proper breakfast. He had been fine munching on his ration bar for months on end before but now he had new temptations.


    He shook his head as he turned towards the opposite direction. The great northern forest was just a hundred meters away. He started walking towards the forest. Throwing powerful and noisy magical projectiles anywhere near town was one way of getting the citizens to hate him so he had to travel some ways into the wilderness for his tests.


    Upon reaching the forest''s edge he stretched out his hand and touched the nearest tree. He sent a short pulse of magic into the tree informing the forest that he was going to enter. It was an ancient custom that the empire''s citizens usually forgo but his years spent in Farhaven had made him wise about minimizing friction with the denizens of the ancient forest.


    He walked while sprinkling sulfur powder on his path every few minutes. He traveled for an hour until he came upon a large boulder the size of a standing cow. He decided he was far enough away from Farhaven and laid down his bag.


    First things first he placed his right hand on the boulder and sent a calm wave of mana into it spreading quickly around the area respectfully alerting any nearby magical creature to his presence. The forest rustled as weaker creatures fled from the surroundings not intelligent enough to understand the nuance of the message. A few moments later he felt waves of mana being sent as a reply from far away. The lack of close challenges meant that his claim on the area was recognized.


    Without a doubt he was within the territory of one or more of the forest''s denizens but territorial lines among the creatures here were fluid and ever changing. As a powerful mage few creatures would take overt offense at him claiming his own share of space. Beings of power had long since learned to live and let live as long as there is no unforgivable transgression committed. Fights between the powerful tend to be crippling to both sides.


    After claiming his practice ground he walked back to where he dropped his bag and prepared to start his practice.


    Firebolt was a four component spell with three kinetic spells and one fire spell. The imperial college of sorcery had greatly favored this type of spell structures with the belief that separating spells into basic components would make them easier to understand, maintain, and improve.


    Elas had no real expertise on the topic of spell structures. The only spells he can claim to be an authority on were his family''s own alchemy centric manipulation spells.


    Firebolt was the first combat spell he learned that was both simple and effective and as such he immediately gravitated towards it as the path of least resistance. He was an imperial alchemist after all so he expected to be well protected by the empire''s finest soldiers. Oh how wrong he was. Turns out the eternal emperor really liked to go on hunts and he expects all members of his inner court to go with him.


    Elas became adept at casting firebolt out of necessity. When the Eternal Emperor points at you to have the honor of slaying whatever beast had been tracked down you better perform.


    He flipped his staff so that the grasping hand was pointed towards the ground. then sent his mana into it to activate the greater heat spell component. The ice beneath the staff instantly melted as the fingertips of the metal hand glowed from the intense heat being generated.


    Elas stabbed the staff into the snow until it reached solid ground. Scalding steam hissed into the surroundings as the extreme heat vaporized the snow around the staff. It didn''t take long before the heat had carbonized the biomass in the soil surrounding the staff head and the remaining material started to turn into a molten mess. He then pushed his mana activating the shape projectile kinetic component which took some of the molten slag and formed it into a more aerodynamic shape. Before the projectile even formed he quickly activated the kinetic hold spell component to hold the projectile in the middle of the grasping hand as it formed into its final pointy shape.


    Elas held the staff as still as he could. His hand had a slight tremor that irritated him but thankfully it wasn''t bad enough to disrupt the spell. Finally the hard part was here. Elas prepared to aim the staff while the kinetic magic was active.


    The kinetic hold spell was one of the simplest kinesis spells in existence and as such it lacked any complicated movement compensation substructures. For a spell so simple the substructure would be several times the size of the original spell and simply not worth it. In order to move the spell Elas needs to move both the spell structure and the physical projectile at the tip of his staff in near perfect sync. He imagined a smooth path from the ground where the staff head was towards the position where it would be pointing towards the boulder and took a firm hold of the spell structure before willing it to follow the path. At the same time he tried to move his body to trace his imagined path as closely as possible and immediately failed at doing so. His unsteady hands caused the staff to shake a little at the very start of the movement which resulted in the kinesis spell losing hold and the molten projectile falling back into the ground. As he expected this was going to take a long time.

 Chapter 6

    Elas flicked his staff up and sent a molten projectile high up into the air before slashing down at the direction of the boulder. The projectile instantly changed direction plunging down towards its target.


    The boulder exploded, spraying stone shards in all directions as the Firebolt hit it from the top. Elas activated his kinesis spell to shield himself from the shrapnel.


    He had spent the entire day getting his body and mind to synchronize. Finally he felt like he was back in control of his body once again. He had taken his time only casting a spell once every several minutes in order to not strain himself. Moving mana was similar to doing physical labor. A person can lift a weight once every few minutes throughout the entire day and never be tired while doing the same number of lifts all at once would have one''s muscles complaining for days after.


    The sun had traveled the sky while he trained and was now dipping down into the horizon. Soon it would be night and he would begin to overstay his welcome. He could already feel animosity directed at him from all directions. His rather disruptive activities had no doubt grated at the patience of his hosts.


    He grabbed his bag and rummaged for some cheap magical materials. He arrayed his offerings onto the ground then sent a mana pulse to signal his intention to leave peacefully. Finally he mixed salt and sulfur together into a small pile and set it alight with the heat component of his staff while chanting a short spell with soundless words. The salt and sulfur pile exploded into thick shimmering smoke that crawled on the ground moving towards the direction of Farhaven.


    Homeward guide was an ancient spell known to most people that spent any real time out in the wilderness. Normally such a spell would be a complicated affair but the wilderness dislikes trespassers and would much rather guide them back whence they came than risk having more come in to look for their missing compatriots.


    Elas followed the smoke trail until he came upon the last stream he had to cross to get back to Farhaven. The sky was already turning dark but it was as good a time as any to take a bath. He downed the potion of warmth in his bag before undressing and leaping into the freezing waters. By the time he had scrubbed himself clean the sun had already set and glittering stars shone through the trees.


    He finished his bath and wore a new set of clothes before recasting the homeward guide spell once again. He followed the shimmering smoke trail until it stopped. The shimmering smoke swirled on the ground seemingly having lost its way.


    Elas immediately lifted his staff and scanned the surroundings. The forest was far darker than it should be on a starry night. Elas grabbed his bottle of sulfur and poured the contents into the ground while chanting the incantation for mage light. Brilliant white light drove away the darkness of the surroundings.


    The creatures hissed and roared as the sudden illumination blinded them. Elas was surrounded by more than a dozen creatures of different size and shape. They looked like twisted recreations of wolves, deers, owls and other mundane creatures of the forest. Their teeth and horns were like daggers and spears covered in dripping blood while their bodies were gaunt and their heads were nothing but clean white skulls. Ghostly blue flames flicker within their empty eye sockets. Decades ago he would have thought of these manifestations as the work of necromancy but he knew what they were now. Baleful spirits were the brutal representation of death and danger within the wilds more akin to elementals than living creatures.


    ¡°Why do you challenge my path, forest spirits?¡± Elas directed his voice towards the direction of one of the larger trees where he could feel the strongest malice.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    A gigantic white bear''s paw came from behind the tree and groped its trunk. The leader of the spirits, a five meter tall bear with a stag skull for a head, peaked at him from behind the great tree.


    Elas felt the creature''s answer as it leaked its intent through the surrounding mana.


    Overstay, unwelcome, pay, land. The mana told him.


    This bastard is trying to extort me! Elas thought to himself.


    Seems like the creatures had been watching him and assumed he would be too tired to fight them after a long day.


    ¡°No! Now leave me be and let there be peace.¡± He replied to the baleful spirit.


    The creature roared as the mana in the surroundings carried its anger.


    Overstep! It told Elas.


    Elas pushed so much mana into the heat spell in his staff that it turned the air surrounding the grasping hand into plasma. The creature growled and hissed as they stepped back from his display of power.


    ¡°No you overstep! I will walk where I please as the right of my strength!¡± Elas spat at the creatures.


    The creatures bared their teeth. The wolves howled while the deers stomped on the snow. The bear spirit glared at him, its eyes turning into blazing torches of blue fire.


    Elas stood his ground exuding confidence in his ability to defeat them all. He knew he had already won. If the creatures were willing to fight they would have charged him the moment he disrespected them. They were now just showing a brave face so as to not look weak.


    The show continued for a minute before the bear spirit gave a loud roar.


    Leave No Return! The creature told him.


    ¡°That is not for you to decide.¡± Elas retorted as the forest spirits faded back into the woods.


    The guiding smoke that was spiraling aimlessly found its way and resumed heading towards Farhaven. Elas sighed in relief. He was honestly not sure if he would have defeated the creatures. Mages were not known for being good at fighting while surrounded. If he was wielding his family heirloom it would not be a problem but with just his firebolt staff the situation could have turned deadly.


    The spirits also knew that they would win. They were not fools. But they also knew not all of them would come out of the fight alive and it seemed the bear''s authority wasn''t strong enough to order the others to die for it. Or more likely the relatively cheap materials he carried were not worth the price. Even if Elas managed to win, killing forest spirits within their domain would basically guarantee Farhaven would face retaliation from the other denizens. The relationship between the great forest and towns that border it was one of tolerance and respect. Any disruptions to the uneasy peace can easily lead to violence.


    Elas trudged back home, his body ached with each step. He had overdone his exercise. Even with the potions of vigor he was still old and moving like he was young came with consequences. He consoled himself at the fact that after tomorrow''s ritual he could start recruiting for his faction. Which meant less walking and more sitting and doing paperwork.


    He planned to create an alchemical workshop in town as a front for his faction. If it was like the game the crown should consider employees as faction members even if they weren''t aware of the factions existence themselves. Workshops and stores should also be considered part of his domain so he could scan the customers for talented individuals.


    He went inside the cabin and plopped himself down on the bed after consuming another ration bar. He would have to slightly overdose on the vigor potion again tomorrow. This was probably taking weeks of his life. The average person would have already died a horrible death at his current potion consumption but a life as an alchemist had raised his resistance by a substantial degree.


    He closed his eyes as he prepared to sleep.

 Chapter 7

    Elas stood on a raised wooden platform in the middle of a large clearing east of Farhaven. He wore a flamboyant robe of imperial red and gold along with a massive feather hat made from several dozen different species of bird found all around the continent. On both hands he held bejeweled golden batons to direct the ceremony with.


    Behind him to the right stood the baron while to his left was the baroness who were also wearing similar clothing. As imperial nobles they were required to perform the ritual alongside him by mimicking his mundane movements even when they weren''t allowed to actually take part in casting the ritual. The platform was to show off imperial authority over the locals after all. Having the most important people in town quite literally dance for the emperor''s pleasure was one way of showing his power over them.


    Below the platform were dozens of drummers prepared to translate his baton''s movement into rhythmic beats to help with the ritual''s pacing. Elas hated mass rituals and he hated imperial mass rituals the most.


    The moment he stepped upon the platform he felt the Emperor¡¯s crown gaze at him from halfway across the continent through his connection with his own.


    His feet were starting to feel sore after standing in place for almost an hour as he waited for more than two thousand citizens of Farhaven that were picked to take part in the ritual to finish singing praise and giving prayers to the infinite glory of the emperor.


    This was not even a true part of the magical ritual, just some fluff to stroke the man''s ego. After the pre-ritual prayers were finished ritual leaders chosen among the most competent citizens set dozens of bonfires alight as the rest of the participants surrounded each bonfire according to prearranged groupings.


    The citizenry started their chants and slowly rotated around each bonfire in a choreographed dance. From Elas¡¯s vantage at the top of the platform each bonfire looked like dancing flowers with people as its petals.


    Elas held his right baton up signaling the ritual leaders to prepare the first reagent. He waited until he saw them all hold the correct reagent high into the air while standing before their respective bonfires before swinging the baton down signaling for them to toss the reagents into the flames.


    He spread his mana into the surroundings in order to feel whether the ritual was going smoothly. It went like this for hours with him moving his batons as if he was dancing as he made sure that no one went off the pacing. When they inevitably did he had to strain to wrangle the massive stream of mana back in place as he glared at the delinquent responsible.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    The ceremony started at dawn and it was already noon by the time the last offerings finally burnt to nothing within the fires. Elas was drenched in sweat even in the chill northern climate.


    The baron didn''t even look winded as expected from a skilled warrior. But the same was not the case for the baroness whose hands shook violently as she tried to hold her batons still.


    It was the obvious difference between mages and other folk. The world gave blessings to all, rewarding them for hard work and skill. The blessing came in three categories. Milestones can be received as a reward for just living life and becoming skilled at one''s craft. Achievements were earned for performing deeds and attaining mastery far above the norm. While Triumphs were celebrations for doing the impossible.


    The world''s blessings take root in a person''s body in the form of permanent passive mana structures. This puts blessings in conflict with the mage heart, a magical organ that all creatures of the world possess, allowing them to interact with mana.


    Mages train their entire lives to grow their mage heart to gain a stronger grip on mana. The more blessings one accepts the less space there is for the mage heart to the point that if a powerful mage accepts a blessing their mage heart might shrink to accommodate the world''s boon. Thus it has been standard practice for mages to deny most of the world''s blessings in favor of leaving space for their mage hearts to grow. The baroness was most likely still hesitant about abandoning the mages path and had put off accepting any boons.


    The people erupted in cheers as conspicuous god rays shone in the sky outdoing the radiance of the afternoon sun and marking the end of the ritual. Elas felt the baron relax and he immediately turned his head to glare at the man to continue emulating his movements. The Eternal Emperor was still watching and Elas was not taking any chances with the monarch''s fickle nature.


    Elas crossed his hands to his chest while still holding the batons before kneeling and bowing low. He then slowly kneel-crawled backwards off the stage as the damned emperor was watching far longer than usual. The baron and baroness emulated him, following him off the stage and away from the emperor''s vision.


    Elas relaxed when the emperor''s gaze left as soon as they exited the platform. The Emperor¡¯s crown can of course track them anywhere in the world he ruled but that was only if the emperor focused on them in particular. The man was probably watching every single one of the thousands of ritual platforms performing the ritual in his name.


    Attendants swarmed the three of them the moment they got down the platform holding bowls of warm water and towels along with food and drink. Elas wiped his face with the warm cloth then draped it on his hand to ease his aching joints. He allowed himself to be led to a nearby tent in order to change out of his ritual robes.


    He sank into the prepared bathtub and breathed out in contentment as it eased all his aches and pains. He closed his eyes and relaxed.


    ¡°Elder may we enter?¡± A female attendant asked from outside the tent.


    ¡°You may.¡± Elas answered.


    A group of attendants filtered in and started scrubbing and massaging his hands and feet. It was only in times like this that he appreciated being an imperial official.

 Chapter 8

    Elas dressed into a simpler but still fairly formal black robe with silver embroidery. The rest of the day was one big festival to honor the emperor''s grace. He walked across town towards the main hall where he and the other elders were expected to celebrate the occasion along with the town''s elites.


    Hundreds of braziers were spread around the town providing warmth to the people on the streets. The main hall was already packed with people when Elas arrived. So much so that even the street outside had been laid out with tables and chairs to accommodate all the guests.


    Elas remembered when the hall felt far too big for the sleepy town. Now after decades of growth and the recent influx of refugees that multiplied the town''s population things were becoming uncomfortably cramped. He squeezed through the crowd which tried to part to let him through with disappointing results.


    Elas sat down on his chair next to the baron who was still absent. He presumed the man was taking much more time in his bath or more likely was tending to his exhausted wife. All the elders were already present on the table which surprised him as Rikia and Finnan usually leave town until far into the night during imperial rituals. After all they were both members of unsanctioned circles who do their best not to attract the emperor''s attention.


    Those without a crown might not detect the crown¡¯s gaze but old stories and myths had long alluded to the strange pseudo-omniscience of the emperors. As such unsanctioned groups had made it a practice to avoid participating or even being around rituals in the emperor''s name.


    The Eternal Emperor might have ended his purge against those that refused his demands centuries ago but the wounds he dealt still lingered. The traditionalist circles'' refusal to contort their ways and lay their secrets bare for the emperor was seen as treason even when they wholeheartedly proclaimed their loyalty to his empire.


    The emperor had been far more tyrannical back then, a stark difference to the current lazy and apathetic rule. If not for the yearly ritual most of the current citizenry wouldn''t even know he still existed given the crumbling state of the empire.


    ¡°I''m surprised the two of you found the guts to crawl back to his eternal majesty¡¯s light.¡± He jabbed at the two mages who snorted back at him.


    ¡°Well I''m surprised you could still move that mouth after shaking your old arse for his majesty all morning.¡± Rikia retorted.


    ¡°Oh, The Eternal Emperor''s light fills me with the strength to go on.¡± Elas responded with as much sarcasm as he could manage while clasping his hands in false prayer.


    Finnan snorted so loud he had to look down to avoid spitting on the table. While Rikia stood up and swatted his clasped hands apart.


    ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± Rikia hissed.


    ¡°You might just call his attention.¡± she continued with a whisper.


    Elas grinned at her, unlike them he was well aware of the crown''s limits and even if the emperor''s crown had some improved vision he would detect if he was being watched. Aside from being scrutinized on the platform the only times he had felt the emperor''s vision was when it was high up in the sky. No doubt looking at his domain from a satellite view.


    Elas feigned pain in his hand where Rikia had slapped him as he looked towards the sky.


    ¡°Ah look at this infidel assaulting your most devoted servant, your majesty.¡± He continued with his sarcasm.


    Rikia almost strangled him as she tried to block his mouth.


    ¡°Break it up!, break it up! you two¡±. The baron said as he arrived at the table.


    Rikia went back to her seat grumbling while fumbling for something in one of her pockets. She took out a short gnarled stick covered with blue paint and snapped it in half. Elas felt an active ward move through the hall. The witch was far more scared of the emperor than he thought.


    Finnan didn''t seem to care all that much. Unlike the Winterroot witches the Heartfire druids have been much more overt in their dealings recently and have become comfortable with the emperor''s inaction.


    Farhaven¡¯s elder council was made up of six people. Aside from Elas, Rikia and Finnan who were all mages there was Berian the woodcutter representing the town''s main profession. Urman the carpenter represented the craftsmen and Callum the hunter represented the people feeding the settlement may they be hunter, farmer, gatherer or whatever else. Luka the commander of Farhaven¡¯s military was also sitting at the table but he was far too young to be considered an Elder being barely older than the baron himself.


    The baroness was absent, no doubt exhausted after the morning''s ordeal. Elas reminded himself to give some vigor potions for the baron to deliver before he leaves. He should have given some to her before they started the ritual but the idea came too late.


    Trays of food and drink were brought to the table which everyone indulged in until they could eat no more. From time to time people came to the table to seek an audience with the baron and the other elders. Elas just sat in his place as he was only really in charge of imperial rituals and as such had no one to seek his wisdom.


    It was already sunset when the crowd started to break away as the people returned home seeking shelter from the cold northern night.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    A man came upon the main table asking for the baron to hear his pleas.


    ¡°Lord Baron, we seek only to have honest work.¡± The man pleaded while kneeling on the floor.


    ¡°We have no fields to till nor wood to cut or carve.¡± The man continued.


    It seems he was a representative of the hundreds of refugees still stuck in makeshift hovels around Farhaven. The town''s population had nearly doubled in the past decade and cracks were starting to show.


    Baron Rein looked towards Berian, Urman and Callum.


    ¡°Is there really no more work to be done?¡± He asked them.


    The Three elders nodded.


    ¡°We are already antagonizing the forest with our current activities. Adding more woodcutters would be declaring war on the denizens of the wilds.¡± Berian explained.


    ¡°Same with hunting sire, there is only so much we could hunt until there will be no more.¡± Callum added.


    The baron glanced towards Urman who also shook his head.


    ¡°There are already too many craftsmen for the amount of materials available. And we could only build as many houses as the logs available. There is simply not much else to do.¡± Urman answered.


    The baron looked towards the captain and asked the same question.


    ¡°My lord if it is your wish I can take in all the able men but only for food as we have little coin. And maybe with more soldiers we could challenge the forest for more space.¡± Luka proposed.


    ¡°And risk declaring war on the wilds I think not captain!¡± Berian exclaimed, backed up by Urman¡¯s and Callum¡¯s nods.


    ¡°Well then more men to stand guard I guess.¡± Luka voiced weakly as he tried to find some way to help his lord.


    Elas had found his chance. He coughed to interrupt the conversation and present his plan to the baron.


    ¡°If there is truly a need for more work. I am willing to hire all of them to build an alchemical workshop, with the baron''s support of course.¡±


    Everyone around the table stared at him with shock. Noone expected him to propose anything after all he had never even bothered to take an apprentice in all his years in Farhaven and now he was proposing to teach an entire workshop of alchemists.


    ¡°That is a splendid idea, you will have my full support, Elder Elas.¡± Baron Rein was a little too quick to accept the solution he tossed out. Either he had full confidence that Elas could make it work or was just excited to push the problem to someone else.


    ¡°I''m sorry to ask Alchemist Elas but how will you sell your potions? Sad to say but I and my apprentices are already having difficulty selling salves and other minor remedies. There is simply not enough coin in Farhaven to demand such luxuries doubly so for your much fancier potions.¡± Rikia asked, trying to curb some of the baron¡¯s unsubstantiated enthusiasm.


    ¡°Who says I plan to sell in Farhaven? If Baron Rein would so kindly provide me with the barony¡¯s merchant charter. I wish to hire the caravan of a good friend as the official merchant caravan of Farhaven. This way not only can I send potions to be sold across the empire, the entire barony would be less reliant on small merchants for our trade.¡±


    Elas proposed the plan with a deadpan face acting like he was doing everyone a favor rather than pushing his own interests.


    Now he didn''t actually have a good friend with a caravan, not yet at least. But with a signed charter and the promise of potions made by the grand alchemist he might as well have the empire''s entire merchant population as friends.


    Having no workable solutions of their own the rest of the elders could only nod their heads in agreement. They were not happy in giving him so much power over the town''s trade but they would much rather have him hold the charter than a foreigner.


    The refugee¡¯s representative bowed and scraped while thanking the baron and his elders. His bowing was so vigorous he had slammed his head onto the floor more than once.


    The baron grinned, agreeing to give Elas both space in the town''s market and the merchant charter for free in exchange for dealing with the job shortage issue. Idle hands were a danger to the security of Farhaven.


    Elas smiled as he solved one of his problems. He might be rich when compared to Farhaven¡¯s general populace but his wealth had greatly depleted over the decades spent without income. The elders salary was not even enough to cover the cost of his vigor potions. The baron might not know it but without the handouts Elas wouldn''t be able to afford his proposed solution.


    The only merchants that frequented Farhaven were shady unsanctioned groups that traded food and mundane goods for wood in between the north''s underdeveloped regions. These merchants would never be allowed near cities without getting tossed in the dungeons for not giving the emperor his due.


    In order to control trade in the empire and ease taxation hefty tolls were placed on independent merchants that operated without a charter. A chartered trade caravan can waive off most of these restrictions with the intent being that the lord who sanctioned the caravan would pay a higher Imperial tax instead. It was far easier to keep track of landed nobility than wandering merchants.


    The system also made it nearly impossible for a merchant to become large enough to challenge the nobility as they were tied to their sponsoring noble. With a limit of one merchant charter per barony it also curbed the nobility''s power and enforced hierarchy as higher nobles with more baronies naturally had more share in the trade economy compared to their lessers.


    Basically Elas had the baron subsidize his costs while packaging it as the solution for the town''s problem.


    Currently no merchant has ever offered to purchase Farhavens charter as the barony simply did not have enough supply or demand to make profit.


    Farhaven may be surrounded by the prized Great Northern Pine but they were only allowed to log half a dozen trees a year based on the agreements with the forest and five of those logs were owed to the emperor.


    Elas¡¯s plan to make an alchemy workshop backed by his title as the Imperial Grand Alchemist would quickly solve the lack of valuable trade goods.


    His potions alone would be enough profit to keep a caravan going but Elas did not intend to bind himself to brewing potions for several hours a day. Using the crown he should be able to separate those that had talent in alchemy from the chaff which he planned to use as herb gatherers or laborers for his other plans. It will take a couple months but he fully intends to beat the basics of alchemy into his recruits so that they can do all the brewing for him.

 Chapter 9

    Elas observed his new recruits walking up the hill toward his cabin with his crown''s vision. The group was mostly composed of working age men and women but there were also a handful of elderly and children. He had told the representative to only bring those ready to work so he must have decided that the elderly and children present were good enough.


    The representative was a pale lanky man. His clothes were worn but clean and were of superior make. Elas figured he was some noble fallen on hard times.


    The rest of the workers also had done their best to look presentable with the lot of them looking cleaner than the majority of the townsfolk. Elas almost felt sorry for them as they would be performing physical labor for the time being. The workshop would take months to build and they would have to start by clearing and flattening a sizable area at the bottom of the hill.


    Elas focused on the representative to glean his stats. The world turned gray as a complex multicolored shape appeared in the man''s chest. The man''s stats were mundane for the most part but they did support Elas¡¯s observations. The man was either an experienced steward or a lesser noble given the above average management and leadership related milestones he carried. He was also missing landlord milestones which meant he had never personally owned any substantial amount of land.


    Unlike the game where a character''s stats were written down in detail. Elas only had a surface level understanding about what each color and polygon in the stat view represented. With enough time he would probably start identifying recurring traits and achievements. But that would take years if not decades given the complexity of the multicolored high dimensional shape graphs that was the stat view. For now he had a vague idea of what achievements, talents and skills a person had.


    The representative reached his house while Elas was still trying to make sense of the man''s stats. The rest of the group had stopped a respectful distance away, no doubt having been made aware that they would be serving an important figure.


    No one in Farhaven actually knew what the title of Grand Alchemist meant. Upon his retirement from office the Emperor had stopped bestowing the title as he did not deem anyone in the current generation of desolate age alchemists worthy of it. Instead the current highest alchemist title in the empire became the bureaucratic Minister of Alchemy.


    As a consequence most of the populace have never heard of his title and simply assumed it meant he was a particularly skilled imperial alchemist. The intricacies of imperial titles were an alien concept to most outside of high nobility and the elites of the capital.


    The representative knocked on the door before announcing himself.


    ¡°Elder Elas, We have arrived early as requested.¡±


    Elas stood up from the chair he was sitting in, straightened his clothes and grabbed his firebolt staff. He had chosen to wear an enchanted combat robe and multiple ward rings and trinkets along with his firebolt staff. The dark red robe with black embroidery paired with the ominous looking staff made him an imposing figure.


    Impressing upon them his power and station would hopefully decrease problems in the future. He had heard from the baron about the deteriorating relationship between the new refugees and townspeople as the new group had arrived just before winter of all times. Which forced everyone in town to be a bit more frugal during the winter to keep the unprepared visitors alive.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Fear and respect shape far better employees than hunger and need. And if their employment under him were to continue as planned they would be hungry no more. Elas grabbed the workshop''s construction plan on his desk before heading towards the door.


    He opened the door and walked out. The representative moved out of his way as he took a few seconds to observe his new workers. They squirmed under his gaze and avoided looking him in the eye. It seems these people were wary of authority which wasn''t unusual; they were refugees running from the chaotic interior after all.


    The only person to look him in the eye was the representative himself who stood ramrod straight and held his gaze with the warm smile of a diplomat. It was obvious why the group had chosen the man as their leader.


    Elas handed the construction plans to the representative.


    ¡°I do not believe you have introduced yourself.¡± He spoke.


    ¡°My name is Argis, Elder.¡±


    ¡°Well then Argis, that is the construction plan for the workshop. I want you and your people to clear and flatten the area for the construction.¡±


    Argis read the plans which only really detailed the dimensions and rough location of the building. Elas expected the carpenters to do most of the planning themselves as it was their field of expertise he just wanted a usable building.


    ¡°Um Elder, can you point me to the area you need us to clear?¡± Argis asked while scratching the back of his head.


    Elas held back a smile as he had made the plan vague on purpose in order to have a reason to impress his strength upon the group. Elas moved mana into his staff, four small stones flew up from the ground to the top of his staff and turned into molten projectiles as he pointed the staff to an area at the bottom of the hill and shot the four mini firebolts to mark the points of a rectangular area. Each firebolt slammed into the ground creating smoking craters visible to everyone on the hill.


    ¡°I want everything in between to be cleared and flattened.¡± He told Argis.


    Argis and the other workers stared at the far away craters in silence. Most of the workers had jumped when he suddenly casted the spells. Elas could also see a fair amount of activity in town due to the sudden noise.


    That should remind everyone to play nice. It had been awhile since the guardians of Farhaven had displayed a show of force so it was about time to assure the populace that they were protected by the strong and to silence any troublemaker.


    Elas took out a pouch filled with coins and tossed it at Argis who flailed his hands to catch it.


    ¡°That is your budget for the month, make it work¡± Elas said as he shooed Argis away and returned to his abode.


    Elas needed competent managers and Argis was as good a try as any. Hopefully he doesn''t disappoint.


    ¡°I will do my best, Elder.¡± Argis said as the door closed.


    Elas laid in his bed wanting nothing more than to sleep his aches and pains away. He had decided to hold off the drugs for the next few days as the toxic buildup was becoming unsustainable even for his superhuman resistance to the stuff. Overdosing multiple times in a row had its consequences.


    Going without vigor potions meant he was relegated to light work for the time being. Just as well as he needed time to observe each worker''s stats. Checking more than two hundred individuals'' stats should take about the same time as recovering from the potion overdose. Elas called the crown through their link and it appeared already on his head. He was starting to get used to the crown''s abilities.


    He closed his eyes as he activated the crown''s vision and started going through his workers'' stats.

 Chapter 10

    Elas sighed as he wrote down another worker''s name and stats on a piece of paper. He had greatly underestimated the amount time and effort deciphering the stat graphs took. Skimming through someone¡¯s abilities took a few minutes at most but skills and talents were not standalone things. Every stat interacted with dozens of others in a massive spider web of interdependencies. It quickly became obvious that there simply isn''t enough time to get into the specifics with everyone.


    He had decided to skim over most people and only delve into the details of those that were highly promising. Even so it still took him an entire week to go through all the working age adults. He had put off the children and elderly as even if they were promising the elderly were not worth investing into as they will not live to the midgame without expensive life extensions and the children were unlikely to have developed skills and talents as they were still growing.


    Out of all the people he had checked he was only able to find four that were worth training in alchemy and even then none of them were particularly outstanding. He expected they would reach journeyman in alchemy in a decade with their talent. Even under his tutelage he doubted any of them would become better than adepts.


    It wasn''t really much of a problem as he never expected to find anyone amazing. If talented alchemists were so common then the emperor would not have worked so hard just to maintain his imperial alchemical workshops. Even at its height the Ministry of Alchemy had less than ten thousand alchemists and that was during the age of myth. When Elas left there were less than a hundred superior or above alchemists left which caused them to start accepting even adepts to bring up the numbers.


    Argis had gone above and beyond Elas¡¯s expectations. Not once had the man bothered him after being given his initial orders. Elas had not given him enough money for the task and expected him to ask for more after the budget dried up. But Argis had kept a strict budget, opting to only buy the most important tools and instead directed his people with woodcraft skills to create the rest from the few trees they felled. He had also gathered the people with cooking skills and tasked them to create meals on a budget which ended up being a lot of porridge.The lack of metal tools had greatly slowed their pace but they had plenty of time as gathering the construction materials would take the carpenters until summer anyway.


    Elas figured Argis only started his managerial stint recently which would explain the lack of milestones. After Argis¡¯s showcase of skill Elas was convinced to set aside some time to truly delve into Argis¡¯s stats and guide him to obtaining all the milestones and achievements of an excellent administrator.


    As for the rest of the workers, Elas was more than happy offloading their management onto Argis. He planned to train the more physically gifted ones into soldiers in the future but for now they could hopefully gain some physical milestones while performing general labor.


    He stood up from his chair and paced around the cabin while maintaining his crown¡¯s vision; he discovered that as long as he could maintain a relaxed state of mind he could effectively multitask while using the crown. He accidentally stumbled upon the feature when he was pacing around the room mindlessly in between the long stat deciphering sessions with the crown still on.


    At first he panicked as he suddenly found himself in third person view but further testing revealed that he can still see through his regular eyes as if it was his peripheral vision. He had always closed his eyes before as he usually meditated while using the crown. He couldn''t do anything complicated as that would require focus which would end the crown''s vision but he wouldn''t run into things at least.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    He skimmed over the elderly who were all fairly skilled as they had already lived their lives. Two elderly men rammed large logs into the ground pounding it flat like it was nothing. Elas dived into their stat graph for a few minutes before surmising they were journeyman miners which were rare in the north where there was an acute lack of mined resources. They were both incredibly close at becoming adept which explained the budding superhuman strength as a result of compounding hard labor milestones but at their age their path was nearing its end.


    What was a surprise was the old matron leading half a dozen cooks to feed everyone was not just an adept but someone well on her way towards the next category. It was rare for someone in a crafting profession to get so far outside of major cities as some of their achievements require rare materials that would be in short supply in most places. At her current skill level she could probably turn bark and weeds into palatable cuisine. No wonder none of the refugees died from starvation during the winter even when their supplies were dangerously thin. Elas expected that the elder council would have a new member in a few years once the group fully integrates into Farhaven¡¯s populus.


    Elas turned his attention on the children which were mostly helping clear the weeds and carry lighter items around the work area. As expected they had underdeveloped stats though they were all slightly stronger than the average child which was probably the reason Argis had allowed them to help with work. It was probably part of their communities education as children were normally given chores that would help them obtain early milestones.


    All children had high talents as the possibilities open to someone so young were many but few would ever reach their limits. As they age their situation and choices would cut down most of their talent until they become closer to reality. Of course the rich and powerful could afford to develop their talents more effectively which resulted in the rather stark difference in blessings between commoners and nobility.


    There was simply not enough time and resources in the world for everyone to reach their peak. Even noble families tend to focus their attention on the most promising offspring. This culture of funneling resources into a chosen few had become even more solidified due to the current desolate age making everything much more rare.


    Even if the wooden crown incentivizes quantity over quality, at some point enemy champions would be virtually invincible when fighting against the average soldier. And because the wooden crown had no combat bonuses Elas would need either more champions or better champions to hold his ground against the other sovereign''s combat abilities.


    Elas moved his vision around looking for whoever he missed when he found himself staring at a rather ridiculous situation. A young girl probably not even ten years old walked across his vision carrying a massive log which she then used to ram the earth emulating the two elderly miners.


    Chaos ensued as the adults quickly scolded the child for engaging in such a dangerous activity which resulted in the child pouting and tossing the log she was carrying which almost hit someone standing behind her. The scolding only escalated from there and for good reason to.


    Elas focused on the girl bringing up her stat graph.


    ¡°What the hell?!?¡± He couldn''t help but gasp as he stared at the most absurd stat graph he had ever seen.


    It looked like a sea urchin with how absurdly over developed the physical stats were compared to everything else. Elas doubted even the geniuses in the capital had such absurd stats at such a young age. Compared to an adept soldier the girl''s strength might not look like much but she was a child and Elas could only imagine the absolute monster she would become given resources and training. Luka should start worrying about his job as in a few years he would not be the strongest warrior in town.

 Chapter 11

    Elas pushed a pouch of coins towards Argis as they sat on the cabin''s main table.


    ¡°Be a bit more generous with the food. I don''t want anyone to say I''m starving my workers.¡± He told Argis.


    ¡°It shall be done, Elder.¡± Argis replied, accepting the pouch of coins and slipping it into a pocket in his vest.


    Elas took out a paper with the names of the four people that had some talent in alchemy and pushed it towards Argis.


    ¡°I have chosen to instruct these four in the art of alchemy. Tell them to head to my cabin starting tomorrow. From then onwards they are to be exempt from all other work as I demand their full attention.¡±


    Argis squinted as he read the names on the paper.


    ¡°Forgive me for asking Elder Elas but how did you get these names?¡± Argis asked. It was a fair question given Elas had never asked anyone''s name aside from him.


    Elas waved off his concerns. ¡°You lot have been in Farhaven for months now. I would be ashamed if I had not heard of your names before.¡±


    It was a bogus excuse. For one thing Elas had asked Argis for his name just a week prior. Not to mention Farhaven was far too large a town for someone to know everyone''s names. An adept administrator might be able to do so and Baron Rein definitely could but Elas was no adept administrator. Argis would probably come up with his own plausible theory given enough time so Elas did not bother to flesh out his lie. In truth Elas had simply learned their names as he followed them around with his crown¡¯s vision.


    ¡°If that is all Elder I will get to it.¡± Argis said as he moved to stand up. Astutely not questioning the situation further after Elas had brushed him off.


    ¡°Sit back down Argis, we have other things to discuss.¡± Elas gestured for Argis to stay on his seat.


    ¡°I will take the girl Sofia as my official apprentice.¡± Elas stated. Unlike the others which would just be his students Elas was planning to take the herculean girl as his official apprentice.


    Given that a mage was an official position within the empire. Once he takes an apprentice he would assume legal guardianship over said apprentice as he was effectively their guarantor and would answer for any wrong they might commit in the future.


    ¡°Elder I must disagree she is too young to be handling chemicals and I doubt the girl is cut out for such a precise profession.¡± Argis argued.


    ¡°I believe you are well aware of the child''s gifts, Argis. I have no intention of educating her as a mage and you know it. I refuse to watch idly as a future champion of the empire is wasted. I wish to meet with her parents in order to convince them immediately.¡± Elas made his stance clear.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Elas watched as Argis squirmed in his seat while trying to find a way out of the situation. It appeared that he was not fond of the idea of giving away a child to become a tool for the empire. It was unsurprising really as they had moved to Farhaven for a reason yet they still found themselves caught by heartless imperial bureaucracy in the form of Elas.


    Argis stared down at the table with a defeated look.


    ¡°She is an orphan, Elder Elas.¡± he admitted.


    ¡°Excellent! Inform her that she is to start her apprenticeship tomorrow.¡±


    Elas kept up an unfeeling facade but inside he was ecstatic. He was worried about how to convince the child''s parents given that Argis and his group looked to be firmly against the idea. He could have forced the issue by forcing Baron Rein to write a decree claiming the child based on her value to the empire. But that would be deeply unpopular with everyone in Farhaven including the baron.


    The child being an orphan completely removed all the legal issues as by imperial law orphans that have not been adopted by a family had no legal guardian and thus had no right to refuse an apprenticeship. Their community had a communal approach to child rearing but such arrangements were not recognized by the empire as legal guardianship.


    The laws concerning the empires system of apprenticeship were set up in a way that an apprentices master legally supersedes their parents the moment the requisite papers were signed. The laws were initially made because masters were expected to sink a considerable amount of time and resources on their apprentices and were supposed to get several years of cheap labor in return but incidents of apprentices leaving their masters the moment they learned the craft became too prevalent for an unregulated system to continue functioning. masters had stopped taking apprentices due to fears of gaining nothing and losing all their secrets which brought on a shortage of skilled crafts.


    These laws were of course quickly exploited by the Eternal Emperor himself. By declaring the children of defiant families as apprentices in the inner court the emperor had an easy way to take perfectly legal hostages anytime he wanted. If the families accepted then he had a hostage and If they refused his imperial decree even better.


    Of course it did not take long before all the nobles and officials started using the same trick to keep their lessers in line. But unlike them who were taking children by forced decree Elas was technically not performing any gross abuse of authority as it was well within his rights to take an orphan as his apprentice.


    It was even considered a generous act of charity by most as it meant the mage was forgoing any benefits to be had from taking an apprentice from an influential clan. Now Argis and his people would probably still feel wronged but it was not like he was intending to mistreat the girl. Scratch that, the training in order to obtain all the milestones and achievements he planned would definitely be considered child abuse.


    More importantly the baron and the people of Farhaven were unlikely to take any offense at Elas choosing an orphan as an apprentice. Even if the refugees did not agree they weren''t in a position to properly take care of such a talented child and will find little support.


    Elas was more than happy with a bit of friction if it was the price for obtaining a champion. He was even willing to burn bridges by resorting to a decree if he had to. The girl''s value greatly outweighed all the other workers. Mediocre workers were plentiful while such a promising champion would be rare even during the golden age. The empire was doomed to crumble within the decade anyway so the girl would never have to serve the empire as a champion. She would fight as Elas¡¯s champion instead and who wouldn''t want that.

 Chapter 12

    Crates full of freshly brewed potions were stacked on the floor of the cabin. After sending Argis on his way Elas had spent the rest of the day brewing all the vigor potions he could with the materials he had at hand along with the potions he would need for teaching his new students.


    Focus potions diluted to a twentieth should be safe for normal human consumption. Giving students focus potions was standard procedure for alchemists as it not only trivializes the intense memorization part of alchemy it also starts building up the students poison tolerance. Just the fumes coming out of an alchemist''s cauldron can be deadly to the uninitiated not to mention all the toxic ingredients they will have to handle thus there was a need to ease students into gaining resistances.


    Elas planned to push the workshop alchemists to get the poison resistance milestones as they weren''t going to need all the space for a well developed mage heart anyway. The alchemical workshop was designed to be similar to assembly lines back on Earth. This way he did not need to train actual alchemists as just teaching them a single step in the process was enough to do their task. It also meant none of them could leave and start their own workshop somewhere unless they left as a group.


    After comparing all the potions that had steps simple enough to be divided among novices Elas decided that his vigor potion was his best bet at getting a product that was both simple and easy to sell. His current formula was unlikely to work as it was both expensive and used materials that were far too dangerous to work with but with his skills it was easy enough to tweak the formula.


    Training an alchemist apprentice was a decade long endeavor. Training someone to perform a single step of the potion making process should take a few months at most if starting from nothing. Not training them into actual alchemists also meant he did not have to register them with the empire, effectively dodging all the restrictions and taxes that came with it.


    Then he just needed someone to watch over the cauldron. Unlike preparing and mixing simple ingredients, managing alchemical reactions inside a cauldron was a job for an actual mage for the same reason he had entrusted Rikia with his medication. The final steps of the potion making process required a mage to bring the conflicting mana of the ingredients together into a stable construct with as little waste as possible.


    There was simply no time to train a competent mage so Elas planned to hire one along with a merchant given both should be easy enough to find in larger cities. He looked around his alchemy shelves taking stock of the much diminished materials. He would need to go shopping soon which was convenient as he planned to visit a city anyway.


    The closest city to Farhaven was the city of North Point, a month''s travel on foot. It might sound extreme but that was the cost of living in the most remote corner of the empire. By providing extremely dilute vigor potions he could cut the trip by half which was still a month''s round trip but it would have to be done. He had brewed the crates of vigor potions precisely to make the long trip worth it.


    This early in spring the baron would be far too busy to travel anywhere which meant his coachmen were just lazing about planting root crops in their gardens or what not. It would be easy to convince the baron to lend them to him as getting the workshop running was supposedly for the greater good of Farhaven.


    The trip was also a great way to get his students and apprentice away from Agris and his overprotective group. The path to getting toxin resistance was ugly and would further damage his reputation with the workers if he was not careful. By taking them on the trip with him he could ramp up their training to something more efficient.


    Elas out of the window seeing that the sun was still high he began taking out ingredients to start his research into creating a cheaper version of his vigor potion. He had prepared the materials and was about to start the brewing when he was suddenly interrupted by screaming and the sound of men running up the hill.


    ¡°Clear the path, we''ve got a patient!¡± a man shouted.


    Elas recognized the voice as Berian the elder woodcutter. Elas moved to the main table and cleared it of all items just as his door was pushed open as Berian and his men carried a dying man into his home.


    Elas gestured for them to place the man on the table. The man was covered head to toe in his own blood. Both legs were broken and his left arm was a mangled stump to top it of a deep cut spanning his entire stomach threatening to spill out his guts. The fact that the man not only still breathed but was screaming bloody murder was a testament to how hardy the woodcutters can get with their blessings.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Hold him down!¡± He commanded the woodcutters who followed his words without question.


    Elas was an alchemist who specialized in life extending elixirs and treatments. The official categorization of his profession was Immortal Alchemist pertaining to their never ending pursuit of immortality. The obsession with everything life extending had turned them into the best doctors in Eterna. Elas was no exception although his pursuit was more in the realm brewing elixirs than saving patients.


    He could just use a healing potion and be done with it but to hell if he was going to waste one of the most expensive potions he had. A healing potion was no different from a panacea and just as expensive to create. Elas had only three vials of the stuff and that was after using the Emperor''s favor to get his hands on the rarest ingredients.


    Elas grabbed his treatment kit from a shelf and dropped it on the table next to the screaming man''s head.


    ¡°Oh shut it will you!¡± Elas said as he grabbed the man''s throat and constricted his carotid arteries.


    Soon enough the man slumped unconscious and Elas shooed away the woodcutters to the corner of the room. There was a reason everyone avoided going to Elas if they could help it. His only experience with surgery was with rich nobles that can afford a specialized anesthetist alchemist or with convicts that don''t require such considerations. Safe to say anyone that required his help would come out feeling like shit for the next few months. At least they are alive.


    First he took a piece of rope and constricted the man''s mangled arm to stop the bleeding. Next he jammed disinfecting herbs into the open wounds before washing it all with water. The man¡¯s arm was done for but his legs would heal with some bone mending powder, splints and several months of recuperation. He mixed bone mending powder with water in a bowl until it formed a clay like substance then bent the man''s legs back in place before cutting open the area of the fracture and fishing around for bone fragments with tweezers. Then it was a puzzle game of getting as many bone pieces back in place while using the bone mending clay to stick them all together. The man''s gaping stomach wound might look grievous but it was a clean cut and was mostly skin and fat with the organs only taking minor damage. He took out a sewing kit and started sewing the muscles together while sprinkling dilute troll blood into the seams. Troll blood is toxic but when diluted sufficiently would only cause extreme pain along with actually providing some of its miraculous healing properties on the wound. Of course one could take a convict and slowly infuse them with troll blood over several years and produce human tempered troll blood that has no ill effects on humans but such luxuries were not to be found here.


    The stomach wound was the easiest as he just scrubbed the organs clean and sewed the small wounds before packing it all back in and sewing it all shut. He then finished by chopping off most of the mangled arm and shaping it into a stump before forcing dilute vigor potion down the man''s throat to fix anything else wrong with him with its minor healing property along with making sure the man healed from the brain injuries he caused by squeezing his arteries.


    Elas wiped his hand on a towel.


    ¡°It''s done, make some splints and make sure the wounds are clean and clean up my house.¡± He said as he tossed the blood soaked towel at one of the woodcutters.


    He walked up to Berian who was sitting on the floor next to the door and asked how the incident came about. The injuries of the man were not the usual head trauma and cut fingers the woodcutters came to him for. And he was quite sure the mangled arm was chewed, not crushed.


    ¡°It was beasts¡± the old woodcutter started. ¡°Several dozen came at us while we were out chopping. We fended most of them off with our axes but Pol over there¡± he gestured towards the man on the table ¡°got separated from the group and mauled. We managed to get to him and formed a circle to wait for the soldiers. Soon enough Luka came with his men and the beasts ran away.¡±


    ¡°Did you over log?¡± Elas asked.


    The old man grunted. ¡°We always do. But this was no retaliation from the forest. No way they let us off so easy if it was.¡±


    Elas agreed with the woodcutters assessment. There was no way the denizens of the forest would leave it at a few dozen beasts. There would be several thousands of monstrous beasts if it was a planned attack by the denizens. Many townships at the edge of the great forest had been razed to the ground the last time the people of the empire overstepped. There were many great kingdoms within the sea of trees and if not for their fear of the empire they would have slaughtered everyone that approached.


    Elas was wary of the situation as there were a couple of crown bearers within the forest itself but they were quite far from Farhaven so it was unlikely. And it wouldn''t make any sense for any beast faction to attack with only a few dozen mundane beasts. They did not even manage to kill a single woodcutter.


    ¡°Where did this happen?¡± Elas asked.


    ¡°About half an hour south of town maybe.¡± Berian answered.


    It seems he would have quite an exciting start to his trip then as the only road out of Farhaven was south of the village. He might as well help Luka and the soldiers with clearing up the problem. For all he knew this was one of the many possible random events that occur in the game though part of Elas doubted such events existed in reality.

 Chapter 13

    Over the past few days Callum and his hunters had tracked the beasts but about a day south of Farhaven they themselves were assaulted by an even larger pack. Though they had escaped with only minor injuries it revealed that there was a much bigger problem brewing south of the town than they had initially thought.


    Rikia had reached out to the denizens and confirmed that this was not their doing. But it was still definitely outside of the norm. It was not unheard of for beasts to try their luck with raiding the town''s food supply but both attacks targeted people not the storage houses. Something was afoot here and they were planning to get to the bottom of it.


    Elas sat under a tree while flipping through a massive encyclopaedia of lesser alchemical ingredients as he waited for Luka to finish getting his men together for the scouting expedition. All five of his students sat around him eyes closed in meditation as they tried to use their mage heart for the first time.


    An average mage apprentice would get the hang of using their mage heart in about a week but none of his students were anywhere near as gifted as the average apprentice in the area of magic. They would probably spend most of the trip grappling with the concept of manually controlling an organ they have never used before. He described the process to them but just as with anything concerning one''s own body it was a personal matter that few can help with.


    Baron Rein had lent him five transport wagons and ten coachmen. At first Elas had planned for two wagons given it was what he needed for his purpose but hearing that he will be visiting North Point the people of Farhaven had quickly drafted a laundry list of things they needed. Elas should have honestly expected it as he himself had given anyone going to the city a list of things he needed to buy. Now it was his turn to do the chore.


    The fact that a town the size of Farhaven only needed five wagons for its shopping was a testament to both its self-sufficiency and its monetary poverty. The quality of life in the town was probably better than the majority of the empire given the relative abundance of food, water and shelter but actual coin was something even the baron had in short supply.


    One would think a town built in a frozen woodland would be starving but the Coven of Winterroot¡¯s name was not just for show. The coven like many of the oldest mage organizations had an agricultural focus and the root crops they had tended to for millennia can grow even in ice if need be. Of course they still grew far better and faster on more hospitable soil.


    The frontmost wagon was lined with fur mats as it was the one Elas and his students were going to stay in while the others were for goods and were mostly empty except for a few crates of vigor potions Elas planned to sell in order to afford his workshop.


    He might have acted like he had all the money in the world in front of Argis but at this point Elas was dangerously low on coin much like the rest of the town. Farhaven had operated for decades with barter and IOUs which worked well enough for the average citizen that rarely if ever participated in the empire''s greater economy. But Elas had a constant need to import ingredients for his potions. He had a feeling most of the coin floating around town came from him as he once had a sizable fortune when he first arrived in town more than half a century ago.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    It didn''t take long before two dozen soldiers and three hunters were gathered around the wagons and it was time to leave. Two dozen soldiers might seem like a small number to send when Farhaven was such a large town but this was more than a tenth of the town''s professional soldiers. Dedicated warriors were incredibly expensive to train and equip which was why Farhaven relied on a rotating militia of its combat capable citizens to make up the numbers. Professional warriors were more akin to elite shock infantry meant to deal with anything too dangerous for the militia.


    The empire as a whole was deficient in professional warriors as the Eternal Emperor is a mage himself and his crown was primarily focused on magical development. As such the Eternal Empire relied heavily on magic artillery and its soldiers were mostly relegated to being meat shields for the backline. It was not until fairly recently that the imperial army started shifting its priorities towards the warriors to make up for the decrease in capable mages.


    Who knew that when magic runs out it all comes back to beating each other to death with sticks. The blessing might make soldiers stronger but even without magic goring someone with a blade still works unlike magic spells.


    They left the town with little fanfare and headed south through the dirt road that snaked through the wilderness. The soldiers and even Luka himself walked on foot as Farhaven had no warhorses and the warriors could probably out pace a horse anyway not to mention bringing untrained horses against beasts would be the height of folly.


    Each soldier was armed with a two meter long halberd with a shaft made of great northern pine wood and heads made of enchanted steel; it was specially designed to deal with large beasts that were Farhaven''s primary threat. The halberds were actually quite a bit better than the average imperial soldier''s weapon which was not the same situation with their armor. They mostly wore thick gambesons made of some hardy fibrous shrub and an assortment of metal armor pieces they inherited from predecessors. It was better than nothing but definitely subpar.


    The only exception was Luka who wore a complete set of metal armor complete with a shimmering blue cape. He might have been trying to hide his past with all the designs in his armor scratched off but only a fool wouldn''t see that he came from a wealthy martial family. Elas had a good idea which family he came from but if Luka was not willing to tell then so be it. Everyone in Farhaven had their reasons for traveling to one of the most remote corners of the world.


    The first day of travel came and went without incident. They reached the general area where the hunters got attacked by noon of the second day as they moved substantially slower with the wagon and supplies than the hunters with nothing but their bows and the clothes on their back.


    The wagons formed a circle and the coachmen took out wooden stakes and boards to turn the caravan into a makeshift fort. They would be staying with the Elas¡¯s students to guard the wagons. The coachmen were capable combatants as the northern roads were far from safe. But they were nowhere near as capable as the soldiers and would only get in the way in case things got serious.


    After the hunters had scouted the area around the campsite and confirmed there was no danger the expedition team plunged into the wilderness eager to put a stop to whatever endangered Farhaven.

 Chapter 14

    Elas watched as Luka swung his blade and decapitated another wolf that got a little too close for its own good. It was the fifth creature that misjudged the distance it needed to be safe from an adept warrior''s blade.


    The beasts had shadowed them for hours now staying just far enough to be out of reach. Elas could slaughter them with firebolts but using spells on mundane beasts would be a waste and he had a feeling that was exactly what the master of these creatures wanted.


    ¡°Luka hold it up for me, I want to get a proper look.¡± Elas said as he approached the dead wolf.


    The warrior obliged and lifted the corpse so that Elas could get an easier look at it. He peered at the corpse while running his hands through its fur to feel its texture afterwards he got to roughly measuring its dimensions. Elas frowned as he held the paws in his hand he was sure now.


    ¡°This is not a northern wolf.¡± He gave his conclusion. ¡°The fur is too rough and the skin fat is too thin,¡± he continued.


    ¡°Could it just be starving?¡± Luka asked.


    Elas looked at Luka like he was an idiot.


    ¡°You''re the one carrying it, does it feel like it''s starved?¡±


    ¡°No¡± Luka answered before letting go of the wolf corpse.


    ¡°Its paws are also far too small; it would have trouble walking on snow,¡± Elas continued his explanation.


    Luka bent down and grabbed the wolf''s paw to check for himself.


    ¡°So you''re saying this is a pet?¡± Luka waved towards the wolf corpse.


    ¡°They are domesticated but I wouldn''t go so far as to call them pets.¡± Elas answered.


    ¡°Elder Elas, if you know what we''re dealing with I would appreciate it if you tell us.¡±


    ¡°Not just me, you should also know what bastards bring around packs of mundane beasts.¡±


    Luka frowned as he glanced around the surroundings taking note of the creatures moving around them.


    ¡°Greenskins?¡± Luka guessed.


    ¡°Greenskins¡± Elas nodded.


    ¡°But that makes no sense, they hate the cold. Why would they move so far north? You sure it''s not the work of a beast druid?¡±


    ¡°Do you think any druid capable of controlling this many beasts would bother with mundane creatures?¡±


    Luka shook his head in response. ¡°Do you think we should retreat?¡±


    ¡°That would depend on how large this group is. Judging by the size of their beast packs retreating may be the wiser choice but it''s your expedition.¡±


    The man looked around at his men. They were all still in perfect condition as was expected of trained warriors while Elas was a bit haggard but he had more than enough vigor potions to make up for it.


    ¡°Let''s continue, I¡¯d be damned if I place my own safety before Farhavens¡± Luka decided before gesturing for the group to proceed. They were probably walking into a trap but given that the best the enemy has thrown at them so far were nothing but mundane beasts he was confident he could brute force his way to victory.


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Elas nodded his head as he took his position in the middle of the group. He also wanted to continue as he believed that the enemy was unlikely to be stronger than them. The beasts might be plentiful but it wasn''t unusual for greenskin tribes to have hunting packs several times the size of their actual population. One of the more savage cousins of humanity they may be but they certainly had their way with animals. More than anything else Elas was interested in whether this was somehow an equivalent to some in-game event that he remembered. Events starting with strange animal behaviors were too plentiful to narrow anything down and Elas was honestly not sold on game events being a thing in the world he had lived in for so long.


    In the game events are randomly triggered as long as certain requirements are met but reality shouldn''t work that way. If greenskins were here in the north then that means they had to travel here somehow. He refuses to believe they just popped out of the ground. From what he had experienced so far the game from Earth was not exactly a perfect match for Eterna. Almost everything had some equivalence but even the crown''s powers were not as they were on a computer screen. Figuring out if this strange occurrence had some equivalency to his memories of the game would give him an idea as to whether his memories of other events could be helpful  in the future.


    They continued moving through the forest heading west as the hunters tracked the older beast paw prints which was a challenge when the beasts were actively prancing about around them. The forest around them grew darker and darker as the sun started to dip behind the canopy. Suddenly one of the hunters stopped while gesturing to his peers to approach his location.


    The hunters were already in a conversation with Luka by the time Elas got close. There in between the hunters and Luka was a humanoid footprint that truly confirmed their guess. Elas could barely even see the footprint but the hunters assured him it was there and it was from a goblin. The hunters could tell him it was anything with how little he could make out of it but he trusted their expertise. Though he doubted any of them had much experience tracking goblins, he assumed they just meant it was in the shape a small humanoid would make.


    ¡°How far are we from their camp?¡± Luka asked the hunters.


    The hunters shrugged. ¡°This footprint was made several days ago but given their beasts have been with us for hours I reckon we ain''t far.¡±


    Elas nodded. ¡°Their beasts rarely if ever stray too far from their handlers, were an hour or two away at most?¡± He estimated judging from the time since the beasts have started circling them.


    He wasn''t all too experienced with goblins himself but he had read extensively about all the continents peoples and nowhere did it say that goblins can lead beasts from extensive ranges. Given that the handlers of these beasts would have to feed them to reinforce their training it was unlikely they would roam more than half a day away.


    They closed ranks with Elas and the hunters in the middle while Luka stood at the front. The enemy could attack anytime now as they resumed their march. Soon enough they smelled the unmistakable stench of greenskin urine covering the trees marking it as the edges of a greenskin camp. Yet they saw no signs of fire or anything else really. This was unusual as the greenskins were rather fond of both large bonfires and handcrafted decor. Even if their favored designs might seem repulsive to most other sentients. Even a tiny goblin village would be decorated from top to bottom with thousands of hunting trophies to showcase each individual''s prowess. It was possible this was a temporary camp but even then they usually had some totems with the skulls of the latest hunt displayed to mark their territory and boast about their strength.


    The greenskin camp was nothing but a mess of broken hide tents and the remains of a bonfire. Its occupants seem to have fled with little preparation heading south. They sped up their pursuit at the enemy''s sign of weakness. Meanwhile Elas was trying to keep his excitement at bay. This series of events were pointing to a great boon. Aggressive beasts and an abandoned greenskin camp. If this was the same as the game then he was about to get his plans accelerated.


    ¡°Luka, tell your men that whatever happens they are not to strike first.¡± Elas said


    ¡°Why?¡± Luka questioned.


    ¡°Trust me something about this just doesn''t seem right.¡±


    ¡°They attacked the woodcutters and the hunters!¡± Luka complained.


    ¡°Beasts attacked, not greenskins.¡±


    ¡°They control the beasts.¡±


    ¡°I am starting to doubt that. For one thing the beasts that have been following us have not attacked us even once.¡±


    ¡°They didn''t attack because we would have slaughtered them.¡±


    ¡°Or they were ordered not to. Just trust me Luka and keep your men from attacking the greenskins first.¡±


    ¡°If something happens to my men I''ll hold you responsible.¡± Luka threatened.


    ¡°I would be the one treating your wounds regardless of whose fault it is.¡± Elas countered.


    Luka grunted back before going and telling his men to keep their heads cool. The tracks they followed were a mess of panicked footprints running through the trees. After an hour more of following the tracks they heard the sounds of battle as trees crunched and greenskins screamed their warcries. They started a brisk jog with weapons ready as they burst into a clearing of charred broken trees.

 Chapter 15

    A massive monster with thousands of thin oily black limbs was fighting against a small army of armored goblins. Its body was made of what seemed like broken pieces of ancient ruins. Old weathered stone and shattered pottery were woven together with battered relics of bronze, silver and gold by oily black flesh forming a shell around the dreadful creature. It stood four meters tall and thrice as wide. Its countless limbs clawed and grabbed at the goblins'' frontliners trying to overwhelm them with sheer mass. In turn the armored goblins kept it at bay with flaming greatswords almost twice their height. They were no savage tribe of goblins but the elites of a proud civilization.


    The creature exuded an aura of dread affecting all who saw it. Even Elas felt his stomach churn at the presence of something that should not be. The soldiers and hunters were most affected being left stunned and listless at the edge of the clearing as old ancestral fear consumed them.


    ¡°CHARGE MEN! CHARGE!¡± Luka shouted so loud it snapped the soldiers out of their frozen state.


    Elas watched as Luka sprinted forward in a mad charge. A second later the soldiers joined him. Elas could not help but admire the warriors quick thinking. The longer they stood still the deeper the fear would grip them and the harder it would be to bring the men into battle. Though he was sure the man ordered the charge out of instinct rather than cool headed strategy such instinctual understanding of battle was what separated the good battlefield commanders from the great ones.


    Elas pushed mana into his staff and shot a firebolt at the monster while jogging forward. Normally he would have stood back and aimed for the monster''s weak points but he was all too familiar with what this thing was to bother. He could drain all his strength battering the ancient horror with firebolts from range and it will achieve almost nothing.


    Ancient horrors had unique strengths and abilities based on which accursed ruin they had spawned from and they all had tremendous regenerative abilities. Firebolts may be strong but Elas was far too slow at shooting them to outpace the horror¡¯s regeneration. They needed to damage it constantly while giving it no room to recover.


    The firebolt slammed into the horror¡¯s shell shattering the ancient stone and digging deep into the pitch black flesh beneath. The creature screeched in pain with a thousand tortured voices as it turned its head to find the culprit. Its face was a golden mask the size of a great shield attached to a long neck black tears poured from its empty eye sockets. Just as it turned its head Luka had leapt on its back his sword blazed with blinding light as he swung at its exposed neck.


    Luka¡¯s sword bit deep, almost decapitating the monster but its neck was simply too thick. Elas gathered his mana and prepared another firebolt when he saw Luka strain while trying to get the sword free from the horror¡¯s rapidly regenerating flesh. A mass of writhing hands shot out from the gaps in the horror¡¯s shell grabbing and clawing Luka as he tried in vain to wrench the blade free. The horror¡¯s claws slid off Luka¡¯s enchanted armor but the sheer weight of hands holding him down had forced him onto his knees. Elas launched the firebolt aiming for an area close to where Luka¡¯s sword was gripped by the horror¡¯s flesh. The firebolt tore a hole through the horror¡¯s neck, loosening its fleshy grip around the blade. Taking his chance Luka¡¯s sword exploded into a blinding blaze once again as he tore the blade free from the horror¡¯s neck. The horror¡¯s hands tried to keep their grip on the warrior but with his sword on hand it was trivial to cut himself free from the swarming limbs. Luka leapt from the horror''s back causing it to give a short chase as it tried to catch him.


    With their arrival the ancient horror was effectively surrounded on all sides by goblins and men. Seizing the opportunity the goblin warriors pressed the advantage, slashing down as many limbs as they could reach. The soldiers of Farhaven had also joined the battle, swinging their halberds at the monster. But even then Elas could see no difference to the horror¡¯s form. With every limb chopped another emerges. The gaping holes his firebolts had made had quickly closed. This was the difficulty of fighting ancient horrors, being closer to an elemental than any living creature it had no organs to destroy and no blood to drain just magical writhing flesh and endless hunger.


    ¡°FI RA! FI RA!¡± one of the goblin warriors yelled at them while gesturing at its blazing greatsword.


    Elas had no idea how to understand goblin dialect but its gestures were obvious enough.


    ¡°SOLDIERS USE FIRE! USE FIRE!¡±  Elas shouted at Luka and his men. Though he wasn''t sure if the horror was truly weak to fire he trusted the fact that the goblins have been fighting the thing far longer than they have.


    The soldiers took turns breaking off from combat to oil the heads of their halberds with Finnan¡¯s special hearthfire oil. With a strike of a flint the weapons ignited into a blazing fire. Soon enough the horror was getting battered from all sides with blazing swords and polearms. Yet still it healed every wound.


    The magic of countless trinkets and artifacts buried within its mass acted like a battery sustaining its magic. Suddenly dozens of its arms raised up into the sky, ice spikes the size of spears formed in the air before being sent down towards the closest warriors. The surrounding warriors either leaped back to dodge the ice spears or blocked it with their shields or weapons. But not all were so lucky; a handful of goblin warriors and two of Farhaven¡¯s soldiers were sent flying as they were impaled by the spikes. The warriors quickly re-engaged while predetermined medics hauled the wounded away from the battle.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Elas was about to move to tend to the wounded when the creature suddenly fixed its gaze on him. With a tremendous scream it blasted him with a deluge of frost from the gaping mouth of its golden mask. He pushed as much mana as he could into the fire manipulation structure within his mana heart. He countered the frozen breath with such expertise that the temperature around his body did not even change. It was foolish to attack an alchemist with a change of temperature for controlling such things was one of the pillars of their craft.


    As if waiting for this moment a deluge of fire erupted from the goblins ranks setting the horror ablaze. A tremendously fat goblin bearing a staff was carried into battle on a palanquin by four others. The fat goblin raised his staff and brought forth another wave of inferno upon the monster but this time the horror was ready and countered the spell with a barrage of its own breath and ice spikes. A shimmering ward formed around the palanquin shattering the hail of ice spears.


    As the tremendous show of fire power ended the battle was back to a stalemate. The monster''s horrendous charred wounds healed within seconds as it once again drew power from its myriad artifacts.


    This is going to take forever at this rate. Elas thought to himself as he racked his brain for a plan. Usually within the game he was more than happy leaving soldiers to slowly grind down this event but this time he was one of the participants.


    The goblin mage once again lifted his staff and sent a concentrated beam of energy at the monster gouging a trench at its side but just as always it healed without issue. Yet in the short moment as its wounds closed Elas felt the mana of a great artifact from the monster''s wound. He zeroed in on its location about a meter deep within the horror¡¯s right flank.


    ¡°Luka, get back here!¡± He called for the warrior.


    Luka leapt back several times traveling the distance between them in seconds while keeping watch of the monster.


    ¡°What''s the situation?¡± Luka panted as he arrived.


    ¡°There''s an artifact buried deep below its right flank. We need to remove it!¡± Elas quickly told the warrior while not wasting time on details.


    ¡°What''s the plan?¡± Luka asked, placing trust on Elas¡¯s judgment.


    ¡°Me and the fat goblin are going to tear into its side with magic. You go in and tear away anything that looks impressive from the wound. Now go!¡± He told Luka as he turned and waved at the goblin on the palanquin.


    The goblin mage stared at him as he tried his best to emulate the gestures of the goblins previous magic in an attempt to convey his plan to repeat the spell. The goblin mage nodded and started to gather mana once again. Luka was already back in battle as Elas prepared his own firebolt this time pushing as much mana as he could to overload the spell.


    Elas felt the goblin mage finish with preparations. They both nodded at each other before firing their attacks in unison. The goblins beam of energy struck first but was blocked by the horrors invisible ward. It was not so mindless as to allow the same spell to wound it so deeply twice in a row. The beam of energy consumed the ward and hit the monster''s side leaving only a shallow gash as its strength was greatly diminished. The horror turned its head towards the goblin not expecting Elas¡¯s overcharged firebolt to hit the wound within a second of the energy beam. The monster''s side exploded in a shower of ancient rubble and trinkets. Elas heard the creature screech with its ungodly cacophony of voices as its body erupted with a torrent of frigid winds which caused most of the warriors surrounding it to step back.


    Elas and most of the others were forced to shield themselves from the blizzard the horror had summoned from the depths of its being. When the wind died down the horror was once again healed. Its flesh and shell unblemished by any wound. Yet there a meter away from it Elas saw Luka grinning while covered head to toe in frost, his left arm was wrapped around a golden orb filled with countless inscriptions.


    ¡°ATTACK! DON''T LET IT GET IT BACK!¡± Elas screamed to no one in particular as he strained himself to cast another overloaded firebolt.


    The horror surged towards Luka with a ferocity they had not seen before. Gone was the slow attrition warfare. The fight devolved into a chaotic mess of dozens of warriors wailing at the horror with their weapons as Elas and the goblin mage drew deep into their reserves to incinerate it with magic.


    The ancient horror on its part sent waves of ice spears in all directions as it used its sheer mass to trample anyone in its path as it chased Luka in complete desperation. Luka sprinted away from the horror as fast as he could but it was obvious the warrior had used up most of his strength as he could barely outrun the gigantic monster.


    ¡°LUKA TOSS IT TO ME!¡± Elas yelled.


    The warrior consumed with adrenaline did not question the order and tossed the artifact into the air. Elas reached out with his kinesis spell and pulled the artifact towards himself. The horror almost tumbled as it rapidly changed directions to chase after its most prized possession. Warriors tried and failed to block the creature as it charged across the clearing. Gone was the monster¡¯s near infinite regeneration. Its wounds smoldered as its flesh was set ablaze and its sliced limbs lay limp dragging on the ground.


    Just as the monster got close, Elas launched the relic with a kinesis spell towards the goblin mage but this time the monster was done with games. Feeling the end drawing near the hateful thing chose to charge Elas rather than continuing its failed pursuit wishing only to claim one more soul. Elas down to his last drop of mana planted his staff on the ground and pointed the grasping hand on his chest; its residual heat burned him as he poured the last of his strength into the kinetic catapult spell. Just before the monster''s enumerable hands could get ahold of him he triggered the spell and sent himself flying unconscious across the battlefield.