《The watcher of universe and stuff.》 Prologue - For it is in passing that we achieve immortality As I stood on the precipice between life and death, I started to understand the simple truth - that nothing really matters. What could ever matter, when everything is going to fade away anyway? Even if you build a temple from the sturdiest material available, time continues to chip away at its surface, until it''s gone and nothing remains. At least, that is what I thought the glowing overpowered orb of colours wanted me to feel. You can never be too sure with glowing overpowered orbs. As far as my life and/or memory went, this was the first time I''ve seen this kind of being. Hey, it seemed quite jolly as if the things it showed me were great wonders of the world, which should give me an insight of Universe and stuff. At least, that was what it said to me when I got here. Yes, even the "Universe and stuff" part. That''s why I think that this must be part of some elaborate godlike orb joke, though, truth be told, I was getting really bored here.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. You know how they usually say your whole life will flash before your eyes just before you die? Well in my case, it was the lifetime of a planet, and it was already going on for quite some time, though it''s hard to judge time when you can¡¯t move, breathe or do anything other than think and watch. Hey, at least it''s going in faster speed than normal, or I would be stuck here for God knows how long, and seeing, as the orb next to me might be the God I''m speaking of, I sure hope he hasn¡¯t forgotten about me. It would really suck to be stuck here, unable to do anything other than watching, while he¡¯s taking a nap. Torture I tell you! Torture! Just as I was about to lose it and join the grand clan of being totally nuts. "Now you understand, go watch and experience the world¡± - words suddenly echoed inside my head. (Understand what?!) - I tried to shout back, but no matter how hard I tried, no sound went out. Next moment my vision went white, I woke up and, Oooh boy, I started to feel that being dead and not in pain, was a much better choice. Chapter 1 - Things to come ***Roadside*** **Day ???** *Trey* As I woke up, feeling the worst pain I had felt in my life, I really wanted to curse the one responsible for this. Unfortunately with my neck twisted in an unhealthy way, which in turn let me see broken shards of my spine showing through my skin, currently that was out of the question. (Fuck you too, godly ball of ass, could''ve at least fixed me up before taking off somewhere, or at least let me die in peace and be free of this pain) ¨C I tried saying, as I struggled to do anything. Well, wanting something and doing it are 2 different things. Ever tried saying anything with most of your ribs broken and your lungs pierced by them? Not to mention that air had problems flowing, what with my vocal cords blocked by my twisted neck. Besides, I guess cursing an all-powerful, possibly, omnipotent being could really end up badly for me, so I guess I was lucky that I couldn''t. Who knows, maybe next time he would make me watch paint dry or how rocks get smoothed by the flow of the river, without fast-forwarding the time. As I tried to contemplate my next move, if you could even begin to move, being in this broken state, I guess someone must have heard my plea. I felt my neck slowly twist back in place, broken spine shards connecting and ribs dragging out of my lungs. All-in-all the worst experience I have felt in my life. I swear, even getting my body mangled like this in the first place was more pleasant, just because at a certain point, when your spine is damaged enough, you stop feeling parts of your body. This time, however, what made me come back to normal, didn¡¯t care about how I felt, and the first thing that came back was not my mobility, but the pain that was gone from most of my body. A few minutes later, being in much better condition, I lay under a tree feeling incredibly tired and looking at the one responsible for this mess my body was in. Well, at least that Ball did fix me up. Guess, not living as cripple or living at all for that matter, is a big plus in my book. You take what you can get. You might ask what kind of evil man, horrible beast or any other monstrosity might have done this to me, while I was on my holy quest to save the world from the clutches of monsters, demons and evil mages. Please don''t ask me that, it only makes this situation even more embarrassing. No, it was not some evil magic obsessed mage, majestic dragon or any other mythical being that done this to me, it was my steed ¨C Donny, who now was nibbling on the grass nearby. Asshole didn¡¯t even look sorry or embarrassed one bit. As I was riding back from the town of Bristol to my home village, after day¡¯s work of delivering messages as a postal boy¡­ Alright, alright! I admit, I was kind of racing full speed and it might have been my own decision that led me to this, but in my defence it was a matter of life and death, as I needed to be home early enough to receive my free meal of the day, and we all know that free food is a matter of life and dead. Anyway¡­ Where was I? Ahh yes - as I rode, there suddenly was a flash of bright light illuminating the whole road, making my steed lose his vision. Being dumbass like he was, Donny abruptly stopped in place. Unfortunately, while Donny was a brahham and thus perfectly obedient to do just about everything short of jumping off a cliff. They are dumb animals, and my steed was one of the moronic ones at that. He, probably, decided that not seeing anything meant it was night time, and nighttime meant stationary sleep. Where he had four strong legs that could anchor themselves while making his large body stop almost immediately, I, on the other hand, didn¡¯t have that privilege. What stopped me, was not my legs or saddle, it was a large rock. So here I lay, thinking about life and how objects in motion tend to want to fucking stay in motion when suddenly my eye caught a glint of something. Feeling lucky, as not every day you get to survive a crash like that. I dragged my body up to take a closer look, only to have my high expectations smashed to dust. You know, meeting God gives you a reason to expect more from life, even if I¡¯m usually in considerably realistic person, but just when you start to finally want more, reality reins you in. ¡°Huh, that''s just my luck, I guess¡± - while cursing my life, I reach down to pick up the broken crystal. ¡°Guess I got robbed and they didn''t even use more expensive storage device.¡± That, I could at least sell for some quick cash, but then, I guess, they wouldn''t leave it laying around in the dirt, if they had used one. Besides that, it looked broken, as a crack had spread through the sparkly crystal. ¡°Quartz huh, Figures... Might as well be brahham dung for all it¡¯s worth in current condition.¡± Tossing away the worthless thing, I returned to my ¡®trusty¡¯ steed, who had stayed behind to protect me. Yeah, that was a huge load of sarcasm on my part, brahhams are so stupid it actually takes few days for them to recognize anyone else as their master or listen to another person¡¯s commands. Bandits must have thought it was not worth the hassle, as moving brahham that doesn''t recognize you, is harder than trying to move a giant rock. At least, the rock would stay where you moved it, but brahham would just go back to the last place it had seen its master. You may call that loyalty, but point is - everyone could become its master. It wouldn''t matter what you asked from the beast after that. As long as you give it food for a few days and let it smell you, it would become yours until you no longer gave food or ordered it to go away. Fun story that, okay, no it was not fun. When I got Donny I had to spend 5 days following him and sleeping beside him. No, the most pleasant experience. Speaking of fun facts - you could even torture it, while at the same time giving it food. It wouldn¡¯t give a fuck either way, not that I have done that myself, but it has been proven by people who have nothing better to do than studying brahham psychology and torturing animals. In the end, the conclusion was drawn that they are dumb enough to follow even the worst commands. There is no correlation to loyalty, a brahham wouldn''t even care if someone sawed my legs off while it got to watch. Some researchers suggest that they could be a result of failed experiments between normal cow/horse and mana. All right, enough about the bloody beasts. I must think of a way to get out of this mess. While most of my money was safely stored in a hidden spot under my bed, my saddle still contained my day¡¯s pay. Checking through the saddle, I found that there was nothing missing. Strange, I thought, the fuckers killed me and then did not even show common courtesy of considering my things worth stealing. Well, okay, their original plan probably didn¡¯t involve murder, but they didn¡¯t add my moronic beast into their calculations. Imagine a lone mage fresh out of the academy, not knowing how the world works, just wanting to hitch a ride, but ending up a murderer. Must have scared the poor fellow for life. Must be an unforgettable experience, watching man splatter on the side of the rock. I snickered to myself, just imagining the fellows face. Nah, I¡¯m kidding, I actually wish him all the nightmares and sleepless nights he can get. A practical joke was not worth what I just experienced. No, wait, something was different! The letter pack on the other side of the saddle, which I need to deliver tomorrow, seems to be gone. I looked around, just in case it fell somewhere, but no, I guess it had been stolen. Well, nothing I can do about it now, instead of pointlessly spending my time looking for it, I decided to slowly ride back home. Slowly, ¡¯cause I already missed my chance for free food, but mostly because having experienced my lungs being pierced by my ribs once, is already something I rate less fun than washing dishes, and boy do I dislike washing them. Besides, I had enough otherworldly experiences for one day. I figure, if I don¡¯t die again anytime soon after riding recklessly, I don¡¯t have to be bored by the glowing ball again. Other than that, I needed some time to think about what the actual fuck actually happened. So let¡¯s start with the big thing - I died. Or, at least, I should be bloody dead from injuries like that, not to mention the ridiculous healing speed I experienced. If not for the similarly ridiculous pain that accompanied healing and torn clothes in a place where bones were sticking out before, I would have thought this all figment of my imagination that my brain made up after I received concussion by greeting rock with my face. No, I definitely did not imagine that, as even the knife cut on my left hand, that I got yesterday by peeling potatoes, was now gone. Not even scar remained behind. So, as far as I could tell, all of it was real. The next thing on the checklist was the colourful glowing orb thingy showing me visions. While the healing can be proven by looking at the evidence at hand, this one was a bit trickier. It might happen to people before they die for good or it might be my fantasy, but one thing for sure - before this, I did not have any noticeable healing abilities. Either I have awakened as some kind of healing mage and that was part of my awakening ceremony illusion, or I might have actually met a God and he, in turn, healed me. I don''t know about other people, but I for one do not enjoy being made plaything by someone who can probably destroy me with a simple thought, so fingers crossed it''s the former. Though with my luck, the ball was real and is some kind of Evil God, who gets joy from watching people being miserable. Well¡­ it''s not something I can do all that much about. It''s not like I can shout at the sky and get all my answers, believe me, I tried. Honestly, those were 5 minutes of my life that I will never tell anyone about, shouting loudly into the sky, demanding answers. Yeah... Let¡¯s not think about that again and pretend it never happened. People might think I¡¯ve gone nuts. I really hope that I, as a matter of fact, haven¡¯t gone nuts. Oh well, whatever¡­ everyone¡¯s a little bit nuts anyway. About the bandits - well there isn¡¯t much to say. They came, they robbed me, while I lay there as a pile of broken flesh, and then they were gone. Time passed and I woke up. All-in-all there was nothing unusual about this unless you count me waking up unusual. In these parts, people get robbed all the time. Most of the time, you can get away with your life, so unless you want to risk death by trying to run away, you just comply and give up your stuff. No reason to pretend you are a hero and end up dead. Not all bandits kill people and even in a case like this, they probably didn''t even try to kill me. There is nothing I can do about getting back the message pack. Even if I¡¯m now a mage, most likely, I¡¯m only a healing type. What can you do as a barely awakened healing mage against steel swords and arrows? I don¡¯t even know how I healed in the first place! Can I repeat it? Not to mention the crystal they used, which was strange on its own. A cracked and used one was worthless, but one that had spell still stored inside would cost more than they would gain from robbing postal boys. ¡°Ugh¡­This probably means there¡¯s going to be a penalty waiting for me tomorrow after I return to town.¡± ¡°Hey, at least they didn''t take my money, so I got that going for me, which is nice.¡± Roads being this dangerous is the reason it pays so well and why I do this job in the first place. Usually, I get surrounded, after which I proceed to give away my money without any unnecessary hassle. Then they just let me go afterwards, it¡¯s just that easy. They get the things I hide in plain sight and I get to keep the stuff I hid behind Dannie¡¯s right leg. This usually happens about twice a year and it''s not that horrible. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m taking a particularly large amount of money with me when I go to town anyway. Just enough to buy some food, clothes or tools I cannot get in the village. In the end, the plan always was to put my hands up, don''t talk shit when not asked to, comply with orders and live to see another day. This time though, they had the help of a mage and things went horribly wrong for me. At least a novice mage would be necessary to pull off that flash, maybe they even had apprentice mage, but I doubt it. Mages are not that easy to find, even when the whole countryside smells like old ruins and mana. Even the worse mage could make twice as much in a day that I make in a week. Banditry is just not that profitable nowadays. At least, that¡¯s what the bandits keep telling me every time I get robbed. I guess they lied.So either they had a novice one join their gang out of sheer boredom and from now on the road from town to my village will be more dangerous, or this was something else. Fortunately, this seemed later, judging how the only thing missing was the letter package. Whelp, this was not something the current me was capable of dealing with, so I brushed those thoughts away and focused on the most crucial thing for me right now ¨C discovering my magical prowess. A mage was a powerful individual that could draw from the world¡¯s mana to bind its power to his will and create feats not possible through conventional means. Well, that was as dry of a definition I could think of, but from the two books my parents had, one was called common creatures of Kundun, the other was basic magic by Steve DeGrieve. Technically, everyone¡¯s a mage, at least a sleeping one. More practically, to become a mage one need to go through what¡¯s called an awakening. Nobody really knows how to induce the state of awakening with 100% surety, but many agree that experiencing life and death situations or by meditating day and night, one is more likely to awaken. Even then only 1 out of 1000 people become an awakened mage, and even less of that go further to become novice mages. Mostly because they don''t even know they have awakened. Not all people after seeing visions think they have awakened. Most just think they have received a vision from God, drank too much, got drugged, or just dreamed the whole thing. An awakened person only differs from non-mage with having the potential to draw in mana. Having the potential to do it and actually doing it, is not the same. So, they keep on living as if nothing had changed. In some strange cases, mostly the ones in life and death situations, a person can not only awaken but even cast his first magic spell. Fingers crossed I just cast healing magic and I¡¯m now a white mage or the more specialized version known as healing mage. Apparently, as people use mana they get tired, so after rechecking my body condition, I wouldn''t say I feel just tired. More like exhausted and hungry at the same time. If I had to describe it - something close to what you feel after slaving away for weeks in mines, digging at the rocks while being whipped by slave master and receiving no proper food for my effort. I had to do that after I got drunk and attacked some bigshot at the town¡¯s pub. At that time I just didn¡¯t like how he looked at me and was too drunk to care about consequences. Turns out, that when you are wasted, people don¡¯t look at you in a favourable way. Well, the guy was nice, instead of straight up killing me, he just made me work for a while in the local mines to cool off. Good! Feeling tired is a check-mark on the side of me being a budding mage. Well as exhausted as I am right now, I can forget about casting or in my case trying to cast the most simple and smallest of spells. Food and sleep come first. As I pondered the questions in my head, and my existence in general, I almost didn''t notice I had already reached the village. You would not believe how time flies when you die and then get put back together. It was currently night, and while I was passing the gates, a moonshine illuminated a sign that said: "Welcome to Greenville" in bright green letters, or at least they used to be bright and green. Now, the paint had already mostly peeled off and even on parts where it hadn''t, if you didn''t know beforehand, you would be hard pressed to guess the actual colour right. Now it just looked like dirt smeared piece of wood with some random letters. Passing the worn out, I tried to stop my thoughts wandering around and focus on getting home. At gates I greeted the guard: "Hey John, how¡¯s night treating you. This time try not sleep on the job, eh? Maybe later I will send some of my maids to help you relax from this nerve-racking experience of guarding our mighty gates against the great forest monsters. Don¡¯t let the wabbits in or the evil will triumph!" I didn''t really mean anything bad by it, John was one of the few people in the village that I could actually call a good friend and I knew he wouldn¡¯t take offence. Probably, he would just quip about me having an easy time exploring the world and going on adventures, while he was stuck on a guard duty. Besides, he was the reason I had this foul mouth of mine. That¡¯s what you get when your daily company are drunkards and jokers. What I got in reply was a wide smile and his usual quick minded insult: "Oh, Trey! Where have you been? I thought you said you would be back the same day at evening, with some beer. Now, here you are 3 days later, no beer in sight and being awfully pompous, as if you were some young lord, returning home from whoring at the town. To think you would treat your only friend like that. Wait until I become big, famous and leave you in the dust of my majestic steed, while I ride for the castle, where I and the princess explore each other¡¯s body with great interest and intensity."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. At that, I cracked a smile of my own. Wanting to reply with something along the lines of him having an ogre for a wife, while spending the rest of his life sleeping in a brahham stall, but then something he said came back to me in a rush. "Wait, what did you say? 3 days? What do you mean? We had this conversation this morning." - I startled back, now feeling a bit more unsettled. John shrugged his shoulders: "That excuse would only work with your whore of a mother if she was still around, but we all know you went to town and sold your body as a public toiled for 3 days straight." Too unsettled to reply with my own insult, I fell in silence. Thinking about it, I can probably figure out where the time went. If the vision with glowing God ball of doom was anything to go by, it probably took me 3 days just to see the planet change. Oh well, I guess that explains some of the weird looks people I know gave me on the road after I greeted them. Well either that or the fact that I was covered in blood, mud and shredded clothes. Thankful for the night that was currently hiding my blooding attire, I bid farewell to John, who looked visibly concerned about me being so out of my character. Me not insulting him back, probably made him more worried than being 3 days late. Hurrying up home, I entered my grand house. Okay, let me rephrase that. Entering my wooden shack, that was more a pile of wood barely nailed together using my amazing carpentry skills, I hastily made dinner. Simple bread with cheese and some brahham milk to wash it all down. For the first time in a while, it actually tasted good. Finally, barely awake, I fell down on my bed and in 10 seconds already fell asleep. Interlude ¨C For all it¡¯s worth ***Town of Bristol*** **Same day, the incident happened** *Khanos* I took off my cloak and tossed it in the corner, honestly, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it landed with a wet sound, judging from how much I have sweated in the last 2 hours. ¡°Never again¡± ¨C I mumbled under my breath, for what seemed like the hundredth time. Carefully checking outside the Inn¡¯s windows for any suspicious activity, I finally relaxed a bit. This has been the worse day of my career being a mage. Scratch that, this probably was the worse day of my life, and if I don¡¯t find a safe spot to lay down for the next few hours, quite possibly, the last day of my life. ¡°I should have known, this whole business smelled fishy from the get-go.¡± I sighed, but alas you cannot keep crying over spilt milk. Even more so in a situation where delays will mean death. So I sat on the nearby bed in and started gathering mana. The speed of which mana gathered towards me and got refined by my body was noticeable, but for me, it has always been that way. It was this speed, that made them all called me a young genius, a star so bright, a grand master in the making, the youngest master mage in the history of the academy. So they praised me, while simultaneously shit-talking me behind my back. Jealousy brings out the worse in people. Well, look who¡¯s jealous now! I wish I could still be safe behind the walls of the academy, but alas, now I¡¯m stuck in a middle of nowhere, with assassins on my tail. I wish being a genius came with a shortcut of not having to work my ass off for my whole life, or at least instruction manual on how to make life easy and get me out of situations like this. The thing that bugged me the most was, I really hadn¡¯t done anything to deserve this. It¡¯s not like I ran away with something important or done something to the wrong kind of people. It was supposed to be a regular run-of-the-mill job; secure the package, bring it to currier, who then proceeds to bring it fuck knows where. I did all they asked of me. Gathered bunch of thugs, took the package and killed the post boy. Okay, maybe that last part was more of an accident than on purpose, still, the kid had to die either way, though that didn¡¯t mean I hadn¡¯t felt anything about that. Shit¡­ no normal person is a born killer, I could still smell the blood on that mangled corpse of a boy. Wait, maybe that¡¯s my blood. Shit, am I bleeding? I checked again, but cuts these assassins had made, thankfully, hadn¡¯t reached my skin. ¡°This should be enough,¡± ¨C I mumbled, slowly getting up. I need to keep moving. If my mana hadn¡¯t run out after the last encounter, I would already be running for the Empire¡¯s border. Let¡¯s be frank here, that was too many assassins for an easy to do, low danger job. It meant that there was somebody in high places pulling strings behind the scenes. Means there was no safe place for me in the nearest towns or cities. That leads me to only one possible rout - out of the Empire and into the Great Beast Lands. Suddenly, feeling unease, I leapt for the window. Mid-leap I felt something sharp embed itself in my leg. Fucking dark mage assassin, probably, slowly stepped inside while I was meditating, and was waiting for me to fall asleep. Not even looking back, I fired 3 compressed fireblasts behind me. Let¡¯s just say that the building wasn¡¯t built to withstand even one of those. As the roof came in and the screaming ensued, I gnashed my teeth, pulled out the dagger from my leg and tried to run as fast as I could with a bleeding leg. I ran to the brahham stalls, where I left my steed. Midway to there I stopped and cursed while being frustrated with myself, - ¡°Idiot that¡¯s where they want me to go.¡± So instead of doing the obvious, I channelled half of the mana into a flare, compressed to the size of a melon, and made it expand inside the stall. After hearing the satisfying scream of someone, just before the roaring blast took down the whole building. I started to run for the nearby forest. ¡°I just hope the screams from inside, were assassins and not some random stall boy¡¯s.¡± Killing was new to me, and let me say that it didn¡¯t quite feel right to kill someone who has done nothing to you, but killing these fuckers came to me like a cold beer on a sunny day. ¡°Hope that showed them, that the next time they decide to mess with the genius master fire mage Khanos, he will proceed to curb stomp you into the ground.¡± Truth be told, I knew I was being foolish here. No one capable of pulling so many resources just to kill me will give up that easy. So while thinking about that cheerful thought, I ran through the forest, bleeding leg slowly taking my strength. End of interlude Interlude ¨C Axe that changes. ***Ogre camp near the hound valleys*** **Day 3** *Aeania* Waking up in the same shit pile I fell in yesterday, after drinking the stuff they call alcohol, came as no surprise. None of them would care if I drowned in it. They would just think that funny, and maybe for a few hours that would be the new joke of the day. After that, I would be forgotten, like the rest of the fallen. Nobody really cares about how much a life is worth in ogre war camp. Alright, got to hurry up or there won¡¯t be anything left to eat. Let¡¯s hope the shit they call food doesn¡¯t poison me to death, though, got to look from the bright side - at least they aren¡¯t feeding me human remains. Those, at least, they save for themselves. It has been 3 days since I¡¯ve been captured. Demons know, why I still haven¡¯t been killed like the rest of people who resisted, but that, probably, had to do with the fact that I looked funny to the ogre warchief. Me, alone, swinging my shovel while trying to protect my little brother, 5 ogres surrounding us. I even managed to kill 2 of those fuckers, but that doesn¡¯t count for much when you are 100 more of them just around the corner. Now I¡¯m all chained up, this way I can forget about taking my revenge. Maybe I should just let myself change into a demon, grab the nearest axe and show why they feared me in the army, but¡­ no¡­ I cannot, not when I have the responsibility to live on for all the fallen. Revenge can wait, for now, I¡¯m patient enough to wait for my time, and when it comes, oh let¡¯s just say there will be lots of blood. A rude shove from nearby ogre woke me up from my daydream. ¡°Move your piece of filth, move!¡± ¨C The grey beast growled at me. ¡°Good morning to you too, shitface¡± ¨C I quipped back. That one earned me a new bruise on my face and probably re-broke my nose, but at least I got to release some of my pent-up anger. Silly, I know, but cursing someone is about all the resistance I can muster, covered in chains as I am. I honestly think they expected me to try for revenge after the first day. Must be why I got so many chains on me, and I¡¯m starting to think they are disappointed by me not doing so. I judge that by the increasingly meaner looks I¡¯ve been given since yesterday, but honestly, that can also be attributed to their dwindling fresh meat supplies. Well sorry to disappoint, you monsters, I¡¯m just fine staying alive and biding my time. Picking myself up again, I went to the place ogres call the kitchen, and what I call shithole, even then I¡¯m being modest calling it that. Coming to the building that used to be a horse stall, I got myself some stale bread from a nearby table. The bread could be used as brick, and the thing they called prisoner stew, well, the less you smell it, the better. Just as I was about to move to the corner of the room, to ¡°enjoy¡± my meal, I got shoved again. It¡¯s not easy to remain in balance when you are covered in chains, so I fell while placing hands in front of me to protect my already damaged face, obviously, this lead to me spilling my meal on the ground. ¡°Good doggy, now lick it up, as you should.¡± ¨C One of the ogres spat in my general direction. ¡°That¡¯s okay, I wasn¡¯t hungry anyway.¡± ¨C I answered slowly crawling away. ¡°Did you not fucking hear me? Lick that shit up! I said¡± ¨C At that, the voice combined with something more physical, and for all my efforts of trying to get away, I still got my stomach kicked. Rolling in the grass few times, I came face to face with, probably, the ugliest ogre I have seen in my entire life, and trust me when I say that I have seen plenty of them. Living in ogre camp where most of the people belong to the ogre race and the rest are few human and daemon prisoners, you can see your fair share of ogres, enough for a life time¡¯s worth. Thus, came 10 minutes of pain, as he kicked me all over the camp hill. Thankfully, before something important could be broken, there came a sound of horns and with the sound came shouts from all sides. (Finally, they came.) ¨C I thought, too tired and hurt to speak. With my last remaining strength, I lifted my head and saw knights in heavy armour, slaying the monsters that had tormented me for these past days, the last thing I saw was my ugly ogre ¡®friend¡¯ getting sliced in half by a two-handed sword. I smiled, and then the darkness took me. End of interlude ***Village of Greenville*** **Day 5** *Trey* As with all things in life, next morning was full of disappointment for me. I should have known life would not be that easy. In a sense, this new development was amazing and meant that starting from now, I¡¯ll probably rise in fame and fortune to become a hero, something that children always wanted to be. On the other hand, the implications that I might have become some kind of abomination didn¡¯t sit that well with me. Besides that, I was not a child anymore and becoming a hero wasn¡¯t on my list of top priorities. Long story short - I was not a mage. That became clear rather quickly, as the first thing I did in the morning, was to try to recreate my awesome healing powers by cutting my hand with a kitchen knife and focusing on gathering mana to heal that. Which was hard as is. Have you ever tried to purposely cut yourself, at least, a cut deep enough to matter? So the blood would flow? Yeah, call me a scaredy-cat, but that took some time to execute. Anyhow, my plan failed at the first step, mostly because as soon the knife left my self-inflicted wound, it was already healing on its own. Mana be damned, but I was quite sure that¡¯s not how magic works, at least, no conventional magic I knew of. Feeling of amazement, immediately followed by dread I proceeded to poke my hand full of little holes that knitted almost immediately on their own. ¡°Haah¡­ Well¡­ Shit¡­¡± - I really don¡¯t think there are more appropriate 3-word combinations that I could use in this situation. ¡°Anyway, enough.Enough self-pity. I''m not doomed. This is fine. Nobody has to know this. This can be my little secret.¡± There is no way in damnation, I¡¯m going to show off this power. As far as I know, there is nobody else capable of what I¡¯m currently doing. Even Troll regenerative powers shouldn¡¯t be able to fix broken spines and pull my ribs out of lungs. The last part proved that this was not my natural troll healing power, which just suddenly awoke and came from my grandmother¡¯s side of the family, as even if you had regenerative powers, you would have to manually remove the bone stuck inside the flesh, and my grandmother was not known for fancying trolls. Now I knew 3 things. First of all, I was probably a puppet, whose strings were in the hands of some Godlike devil orb that has nothing better to do, than watch planet being recreated. This leads me to the second part - I knew nothing else of use. Not what I had to do, not what the orb is expecting of me, not what this all meant. Finally, I knew this could become ether huge blessing or huge disaster for me. If some archmage took fancy in studying my power, I might get locked up in a cell for the rest of my life, and the rest of my life sounded closer to eternity if my newfound powers stopped me from getting older. That last part, at least, wasn¡¯t proven yet. Heck, it might not even take archmage, just a common one would do it for me, as I¡¯m not known for my fighting prowess. Not to mention, what would happen if the church of Holy Fire caught wind of this. If their inquisition didn¡¯t just straight up burn me to death (If I can even die for good), they might just decide to lock me in a steel cage and bury alive. There is only a little difference of what they consider a miracle of their God and what is considered heresy that needs to be exterminated. With that jolly thought in mind, I finished my morning workout and headed out to take care of daily necessities. Visiting village tailor, I ordered a new set of clothing, as my old one was currently burning in my fireplace. No amount of washing can get that much blood out. Finishing that and realising my bare minimum of savings I had, already dwindled to few silver coins, I hastily made for the stalls. People have to eat, at least I still did, and nothing had changed there. I had the sinking feeling I could probably go without food, but the pain of my stomach being digested by itself while simultaneously regenerating was probably not pleasant, so left for the town again. I still had to meet up with my boss and inform him about the robbery. That didn¡¯t bode well; I could already see him reducing this month¡¯s payment because of that. Life is hard, even for a non-proven-immortal. Maybe I can look for a work more suited to my newly acquired powers; maybe I could join the bandits. No, I quickly discarded that thought, they would catch on pretty quickly that, for some reason, I just tend to not get hurt at all. After that, I was just a few reports away from getting my ass hauled off by the Inquisition, so the work should be something I can do alone. How about becoming a master thief slash assassin? ¡°Hmm, that sounds cool. Me, a master thief, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Ladies would love a dashing and dangerous man like me,¡± ¨C I said while striking a pose, which was not easy while riding. ¨C ¡°Or better yet, being secret government assassin on a mission to assassinate neighbouring countries royal family.¡± Just as quickly, I stopped, when I realised the nearby travelling caravan had people looking at me strangely. What do they know, they are just jealous of how beautiful and refined I am. Anyway, now that I¡¯m through with embarrassing myself, I should really decide what path I should take in my life. Do I really want to pursue danger-filled jobs? The answer is probably a big no. I have no real skills that a thief required, and worst of all, I sucked at being stealthy. So what¡¯s next? An assassin? No, the same thing, and I¡¯m not sure I want to kill people for a living or kill anyone for that matter. Mother taught me better than that. I should, at least, make her proud, wherever she is now. It¡¯s not like I need money badly enough to hurt somebody. So that automatically excluded almost all criminal activities from my possible job list. It¡¯s sad, when you think about how even being practically semi-immortal, don¡¯t just come with a free pass in life. I still needed to eat, I still need clothes and I still needed money for all of that. Maybe I should become adventurer and hunt monsters for a living, I know I have no real skill with weapons, but I could, at least, give it a try. Worst case scenario, I would just regenerate any damage that the monsters would deal. Well, that¡¯s one thing I could do, I should at least add that to my possible job list. Joining the awesome ranks of adventurers would allow me to learn some self-defence and slaying beasts could gain me fame, fortune and money. I think, I have finally convinced myself on the path I want to follow, now what¡¯s left is just the execution of said path. Celebrating my own quick-witted decision I raised my head to look for the gate, as I closed in on the town ¡°Fucking hell. What is it now?¡± Life is never that easy, and when you think everything¡¯s figured out, it reaches out and smacks you in the face. Now, seeing the huge plume of smoke that rises over the treetops, from the general direction the town was in, I knew that to be truer than ever. Chapter 2 – Circle of Life Interlude ¨C For Honour and Glory ***Destroyed ogre camp near the hound valleys*** **Day 4** *Jeanne* ¡°Captain Jeanne we secured our position, and the scouts have already been dispatched to look for any remaining ogres that might be nearby, we await your orders.¡± I looked at the scrawny man that barely reached my shoulders. It was not that I was tall for a human; it was that he was too small for one. Nevertheless, he was one the finest knights I had under my command. When it came to sword mastery and tactics, few could beat him. Sometimes, I wonder why he wasn¡¯t the captain instead of me, but guess that they wanted a paladin Holy Fire to be in charge. Not that he wanted the job anyway ¨C ¡°Too much hassle,¡± ¨C he says. Well, with everything that¡¯s been going on, I don¡¯t blame him. I would rather go back to protecting church¡¯s apostles on their way to holy city Sanctorum. ¡°Good work Kingsley, continue to keep order and secure our position. We will probably move out at the dawn. There are still vermin out there, in a need to die.¡± ¨C I said, raising my visor to get a better look at the surroundings or more correct would be to say - what¡¯s left of them. We currently were at the remains of ogre camp, and it was hard to imagine that just a few days ago it was an ordinary village. Most of the buildings were burned down and those that were left were in no shape to be liveable in. Not to mention the sheer amount of corpses and rotten flesh that could be seen lying around. All-in-all a disgusting sight to behold. ¡°Is there anything else to report?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes captain, it seems ogres took prisoners. There are some who are still alive but in bad condition. I don¡¯t know if they will be able to move out with us. Some of them may never walk again, and we will be lucky if half of them wakes up to see another day. Healers are tending them as we speak, but they say it¡¯s already a miracle they lasted this long. Besides that, I strongly suggest we take some of our earth mages and bury the pit ogres consider a kitchen. The sight of half-eaten human flesh might bring down the morale otherwise,¡± ¨C and in quieter voice added ¨C ¡°If there¡¯s any of that even left, after sight like this.¡± ¡°Prisoners¡­ huh¡­ That¡¯s new, never heard they took prisoners, but from what you described, my guess is that most of the time they just died, before we could recover any.¡± That left me to ponder. Could we have saved more if we struck the camp night before, instead of carefully scouting and looking for an opening? No, that¡¯s just wishful thinking, there¡¯s no guarantee that the fight would go as good as it did now. ¡°Alright Kingsley, I¡¯ll leave the mages to you, they get prickly when it comes to talking with a paladin. Something about our order putting pressure on them, I guess.¡± ¨C I always wondered about that, I consider magic and mana a gift from the God of Holy Fire. How else would you be able to explain the miracles they could perform with magic? Unfortunately, not everyone in the order shared my beliefs. ¡°Yes captain, I¡¯m on it!¡± ¡°That¡¯s all then, may the Holy Fire light your way and protect you!¡± ¨C I dismissed him and went to survey the camp. There was still work to do, even if it felt ages since I last took a decent bath, the enemy won¡¯t wait for me. Horrible, to think that in two short weeks we lost 4 towns and 13 villages to these monsters. No matter what the council says, they don¡¯t deserve to be called one of the sentient races, as they only think about killing and eating. I shudder to think that they are allowed their own seat on the council. It seems, rest of us treating them as civilised beings, only made them greedier. Strange, though, that the great ogre warchief denies going to war with us, usually they don¡¯t hold back like that. You would think there¡¯s some kind of underlying plot behind it, but when half of the northern ogre tribes march on our territory and slaughter left and right, there¡¯s little need for any plotting to be involved. No, I refuse to believe that the savages I¡¯ve seen in this fallen encampment can design any plot worth a damn! Why should they, when sheer numbers and strength is enough? Anyway, there are people better suited for figuring out ogre politics, I¡¯m just here to clean up and help the people. Hmm, while I¡¯m at it, I should probably check on the released prisoners, maybe there¡¯s someone I know. I heard the Lorick¡¯s family moved to Bristol recently. Hope they managed to escape death. Even if not, the survivors might feel safer if they see that someone from an order of Holy Fire is guarding them, and maybe I will find her¡­ No! I don¡¯t want to get my hopes up for this; it¡¯s already hard as is. With that in mind, I made for the healer tents. End of interlude ***What used to be town of Bristol*** **Day 5** *Trey* So many people dead ripped apart by swords and axes. Fucking monsters, damn them. As I stood there, looking over the carnage, I shuddered. Bodies laid everywhere, looking at me with their blank eyes. Staring, judging me. Judging me for being alive, while they lay dead. I saw people I knew, missing parts of their bodies. No¡­ STOP LOOKING! Have to, got to, need to do something. Survivors! Yes! Need to stop standing here like a fool, got to look for any survivors. There must be some! Please God, let this be the worst of it. Found none. At least no one responded to my shouts. I sat in the corner pale-faced. While searching, I must have emptied my stomach at least 5 times. The air felt heavy, with the smell of blood invading my nostrils, making me dizzy. Amongst the human, daemon and beastman corpses, laid what I think were ogres. They looked just like in the descriptions, minus the missing limbs. Still, they were a minority and if the signs of fighting could be believed, they were the ones attacking the village. Ogres usually don¡¯t visit human towns. Guess now I know why what with the random killings. Huh¡­ I don¡¯t mean sounding like an asshole, but really, cracking a joke was all that kept me from passing out in this carnage. There was no time for crying, while I checked the major streets, I still need to check inside the houses. Opening the door to my childhood crushes Sandra¡¯s family house, I was met with another bloody scene. I emptied my stomach for what seems like 6thtime and ran outside. No survivors, Sandra, the cute girl I used to chase with flowers and sweet promises, dead, without her head and arms laid on the kitchen table, with bite wounds, which looked like they had been done by a beast, all over her. Her family laid scattered around her in the same condition. Be strong, I repeated to myself for what seemed like 100thtime and, and went on to look for any signs of life. ¡°Thud¡± Suddenly I heard a sound coming from the major¡¯s house. I rushed there, opened the door and what greeted me, was not the sight of mangled corpses, it was way worse. 5 ogres with sacks that dripped blood and their backs, now looked at me, their eyes gleaming. ¡°AaaaaaaA!¡± ¨C I screamed, closing the door and bolting away. Fuck, idiot, moron, shit-for-brains Trey. Why didn¡¯t you just leave, while you had the chance? Why would you insist on looking for survivors, while you don¡¯t know if the killers are still around? Be selfish for once, when your survival depends on it. I didn¡¯t even need to look behind me, to know that was being chased, and because of my poor athletic abilities, they were catching up. I need to think fast. I could lead them to a caravan on the main road, those have guards. No, I can¡¯t, there are usually around 2 or 3 guards guarding a single caravan, versus five ogres, they won¡¯t last long. Caravan guards are usually old retired soldiers, while the ogres looked like they just couldn¡¯t get enough of killing done in one day. So instead of bringing my troubles to them, I dashed for the nearby forest. I kept on running, branches hitting my face, barely finding my way deeper in the forest. If my wonderful healing didn¡¯t kick in, I would have stopped long ago, as somewhere along the way I already managed to sprain my ankles multiple times. Shitty forest, shitty trees, shitty roots. At this point, I was already too tired to think of any better insult or whether it was even necessary to insult inanimate objects. I just hope those bastards have just as hard of a time catching up. Sparing a moment to look back, it didn¡¯t look good for me. I hasten my steps even more, but the ogres kept chasing me like hounds. Now, the only thing keeping me going was the power of sheer will. That and the thought of becoming ogre barbeque. Somewhere along the way I, probably, already broke the speed limit my body was capable of. Shit, they must be hungry from all this running. I can already imagine their surprise when after taking a bite out of me, they discover that the meat just keeps on coming. ¡°Push forward! Few more steps Trey! Don¡¯t let the shitheads catch you!¡± ¨C I kept on repeating. Suddenly, I saw the light of the campfire, and if I saw it, the ogres must have seen it too. ¡°Dammit, I led them to more people!¡± ¨C I cursed under my breath. I must warn them. I cannot just push my problems on others. Where I suck at dying, they might not. Even if I turned and ran different direction, who¡¯s to say that the ogres will not split up, half following me and half going for early breakfast. So I ran to the campsite shouting with all the air I had left in my lungs. ¡°Run you fuckers, run! Or they will kill y¡­¡± Before I could even finish my sentence, a huge ball of fire greeted my face. Interlude ¨C Cooking club ***Somewhere in forest*** **Day 5** *Khanos* It had been 4 days since I hid in the forest. The assassins just kept coming. I¡¯m already half-mad from not having enough sleep. How could I sleep, when every moment could be my last? Thankfully, it¡¯s nothing a few well-placed crystal traps and fireballs can¡¯t fix. Unfortunately, as I¡¯m inside a forest, fire tends to spread, so I had to simultaneously split my control over the spell and its aftermath, just so I don¡¯t set everything around me on fire. Being a master fire mage doesn¡¯t make me immune to fire. Control is everything, and it¡¯s something that gets harder with less sleep. My bleeding leg didn¡¯t help either, burning the wound clean could only fix so much. I had to resort to finding common medicinal plants for treating that wound. Thankfully, a mage training includes basic survival course. Still, I got more than I bargained for when I took this quest. After 2 days of really slow travel towards mountains that divided the territory between Kundun Empire and Beast lands, I set up a camp. To cross the mountains, I will at least need to recover some of the lost strength. At least 2 days of rest should do it for me and my leg. Scavenging for food, was not as easy as Instructor Carol showed it to be. Worse, I got bit by a squirrel, while trying to search a bird¡¯s nest for some eggs. I didn¡¯t even know that squirrels attacked people. They aren¡¯t even magic beasts. Well, at least now I can safely say that squirrels taste like similar to undercooked brahham, though those might be my amazing cooking skills at fault here, I¡¯ll blame lack of salt and that the squirrels are generally not tasty. As I got ready to at least catch some light sleep on my improvised leaf bed. I heard shouts coming closer. ¡°Fucking bastards, already found my trail again, didn¡¯t take them long.¡± ¨C I cursed How do they keep finding me? Strangely enough, this time it looks like they ditched the steal approach, rushing in right for the kill. Probably think I¡¯m already too weak to be a threat. Well, I¡¯ll show them that the genius master magician Khanos is no easy prey.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Gathering mana in my hands, I cast fireblast, too tired to even consider the consequences of releasing something larger than fireball inside a forest anymore, I tossed it at the fucker who kept on shouting something about me running away. I was not running! It¡¯s called strategical retreat. Let¡¯s see you stay still, when there is assassin organization on your heels, though you won¡¯t be seeing anything anymore, burned black as you are, your pieces scattered to 4 winds. ¡°Ahaha¡± ¨C I let out a low laugh which by now sounded a little maniacal. Seems like they still underestimate me, sending rookies that don¡¯t even try to dodge. That laugh was quickly cut short by the sight of 5 ogres coming in my vision. ¡°So now they send beasts to do their dirty work? Well not like I care, you will all look the same when roasted black.¡± ¨C I snarled at them, releasing more fireblasts. The ogres were caught unprepared, for some reason. So I managed to take 2 out before they even noticed me. The three remaining ones looked at me with a startled expression. Strange, didn¡¯t they inform them about their target before accepting the job? Well, no sympathy for them, as we are now in the same boat, water slowly filling it, I now knew the feeling well. There¡¯s only one lifeboat and I already got the seat reserved. Next, came the hard part, the remaining ones, despite their earlier blunder, reacted fast and hid behind trees, and started circling around me, getting closer and closer. No matter what they say about ogre idiocy, they are still natural born hunters and forests are their home turf. I need something to even the odds. Let¡¯s see if I can make them charge me. ¡°I piss on your mother¡¯s graves, you stupid cunts! Come, try to kill me, you fuckers! If not for my leg, I would have already cut your balls off and fed them to you.¡± ¨C They should at least give me credit for trying as that¡¯s the rudest thing I had ever said, period. Unfortunately, it seems ogres didn¡¯t appreciate my fine language arts and just kept on encircling me, getting closer and closer. Guess I need to go with plan B. Gathering as much mana around me in a circle as I could, I slowly started to back away while pretending to trip against tree roots. That gave the beasts a chance they¡¯ve been waiting for, they came charging, weapons raised. They should have taken the lesion from assassins, and left someone who stayed back to cover their friends, but I guess they are too excited. Fortunately, their mistake gave me a chance to add three new roasted corpses to my kill list. Just as they closed in, I released all my gathered mana in a fiery blast around me. Fire Nova, one skill any self-respecting fire mage should learn. Unfortunately, it cost me all of my remaining mana. Staggering, I moved to collect my things, and¡­ ¡°Fuck¡± Should have known. They don¡¯t call fire nova one of the flashiest, coolest, but hard to use the skill in battle for nothing. All the spare clothes and food I collected turned into charred dust. Besides that, the forest was on fire, and I didn¡¯t have enough mana or mental strength to do anything about it. I need to move fast or become smoked bacon. If I remember correctly, there should be a river further down south. Alsa the river that signifies the start of true wilderness. If before it, you could expect to meet local hunters, then after the river, the only thing you¡¯ll ever meet are magic beasts and adventurers, with adventurers being the rare ones. I ran, ignoring the growing pain in my leg, knowing I¡¯m racing against time. While I could control smoke and temperature around me to some degree even being low on mana, the temperature will soon reach threshold too high for me. End of interlude Interlude ¨C Every good weapon needs to be field-tested. ***Ogre camp near the hound valleys*** **Day 5** *Aeania* I woke up, strange, I figured that with the wounds I had, I wouldn¡¯t. Well, I¡¯m all for pleasant surprises, not many of those left these days. Last, I remember, I had my ribs kicked in, now I was lying in bed, which was a huge improvement overall. The air smelled like herbs, again, a huge improvement over the smell of rotten flesh and shit. Besides that, nobody was trying to kill me, and again¡­ well, you get the gist of it. I could see people in white cloaks rushing about. I recognized Kundun empires coat of arms on the cloaks. Must be army¡¯s white mages. Around me, I could see more people in beds similar to mine thank God more of us survived. I tried calling out to one of the healers, but my mouth was parched like Sandy Desert and barely any sound came out. I tried again: ¡°Water, please.¡± It came out in croaked voice, but this time one of them noticed I was awake. Recognizing my need, the healer came to my bed with a clay jug, and while helping me sit up, gave me water. ¡°Careful, don¡¯t rush, you are in safe hands now. No need to worry, you will have plenty of food and water,¡± ¨C she said in a gentle tone. Speaking to me as if I¡¯m a child. I almost rolled my eyes at her, but the truth was, her words did come as a small relief and helped my constricted muscles to relax. I didn¡¯t even realize I was subconsciously readying myself for another attack. After emptying half the jug, I was finally able to get the feeling back in my parched tongue. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°No problem, it¡¯s the least we can do after what you¡¯ve been through.¡± - The young white mage responded. ¡°Can you tell me what happened?¡± ¨C I asked. ¡°Easy there, you don¡¯t need to worry so much about the situation, first tell me your name and then I¡¯ll see about filling you in on what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Aeania, Aeania Coniara.¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s nice to meet you Aeania; I¡¯m Juliana, though you can call me Jules, at least everybody else does that. For now, you should rest here, as for what happened, well, our army¡¯s company arrived yesterday. We wipe out all the filth that was here, and under the command of our captain Jeanne, established this position as our current base camp.¡± They were dead, those fucking monsters gone. I won¡¯t be able to get my revenge like this, but I guess it¡¯s better this way. This way, I can move on, and not let madness consume me. As if, remembering Jules coughed to catch my wandering attention. ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¨C She asked, - ¡°If you need more rest, I can leave you to it, and when need something, just call me. The captain wanted to talk with you, she seemed to know you, but if you¡¯re still feeling bad then it can wait. We will only move out tomorrow, as captain decided to stay here until we heal the injured.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m fine, I was just thinking. You said captain wanted to see me? All right, I think I¡¯m well enough to go see her. You really did a good job of fixing my old bones, only slight dizziness remains.¡± ¡°Alright, just don¡¯t overdo it. Yesterday, we weren¡¯t sure if you would survive with those broken ribs and internal bleeding. Fortunately, I¡¯m proud to say that we are one of the finest healer groups in the army. It¡¯s probably general Hendrik giving the church some face by assigning us to the same unit as paladin captain Jeanne.¡± - With that, she turned and left to help other patients. I slowly got up; dizziness intensified for a moment, but I overcame it. Thankfully, I was not wearing my old dirty clothes. Seems they provided me with grey cotton trousers and shirt, while I was sleeping. Modesty was never my strong suit, and besides that, I was once an army myself, there everybody slept together in one huge room, you could always choose to sleep outside if you wished for privacy. I hope they burned my old clothes, I would not want to wear them ever again or let anyone near them for that matter. It must be a health hazard to just be around them, let alone wear them. Daylight greeted my face, as I exited the healers¡¯ tent. It seems to be close to evening already. Seems that I was asleep for little more than a day. Hmm, now where should I go? It should be the biggest tent, right? I mean, where else would captains¡¯ living quarters be. However, that status was taken by healers¡¯ tent, and kitchen. I felt something wet touch my chin. Am I drooling? Woah, that¡¯s a first. I need to visit there soon. All these days of eating nothing but the horrible gruel they gave me. I shuddered; even army food was welcome after that horrible experience, however, that could wait after I find the captain, for now, I should ask someone for directions. A couple of inquiries and a few minutes later, I stood in front of a small grey tent, which for all means and purposes seemed to belong to a peddler, if not for the soldier¡¯s assurances, that this was what I am looking for, I wouldn¡¯t have considered it. I just can¡¯t imagine what kind of person would choose this over the more extravagant ones, usually used by someone in charge. Only one person fit the criteria, both her name and the lack of pomp, but last time I saw her, she was just a church¡¯s trainee. A young girl, not more than twelve of age, so dedicated to her role of becoming the perfect knight in shining armour, constantly practising her sword swings and happily helping people. ¡°Hello little J, long time not seen,¡± ¨C I said with a smile, while entering the tent; to the person currently busy looking over maps. She looked up at me, beaming with a smile of her own. ¡°Aunt Aeania, I¡¯m so glad you are safe.¡± ¨C She said, running closer and embracing me. ¡°The healers were not confident when they found you, and I was so scared that just as I found you I would lose you again.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± ¨C I answered gently holding the crying girl, - ¡°everything is fine, you do not need to worry anymore. I¡¯m all right. Shush now, you are a paladin and a captain now, you cannot go around crying. What would the soldiers think if they saw you right now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care what they think, as long as they follow orders, but you are right. Just give me a second to compose myself. Oh, it¡¯s just that I haven¡¯t seen you since you left with the army, and after I was promoted to captains rank and wanted to go look for you, they told me you retired and now we''re living with your family. So, I never got to thank you for all the times you helped and protected me. Now finding you in this beast nest hurt, well, I didn¡¯t know what to think, but I¡¯m all right now. Or I will be, now that you are here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you too, but our reunion party will have to wait. While being held a prisoner, I heard some unsettling things I need to tell you.¡± ¨C I took a deep breath, - ¡°I think the ogres are acting too strangely, as much as I would love to believe they are just horrible monsters, I have actually met and talked with some of their kind when I was still in the army. They were nothing like these ones. Sure, they fought most of the time, and it was easy to see that they are quite war-like people, but they were not like this. Besides that, I overheard them mention some kind of master or masters on multiple occasions. It¡¯s the first time I have heard an ogre would take anyone as his or her master, they would rather die before becoming slaves to someone, their pride would not allow it.¡± ¡°Hold up!¡± - She let go of me and looked at me strangely. ¡°We just met again and you start with something like this? What are you saying? Are you defending their actions? After all, they did to you and to the people in your village.¡± ¡°I know this is sudden, but this is impor..¡± ¡°You should know that your village was not the only one; they burned down and feasted upon many more. Four towns and thirteen villages have already fallen to them! I can¡¯t believe you are saying things like this! Are you sure, you should be walking around; you are clearly still not healthy enough to be out of the bed. Here, let me call healers for you.¡± ¡°Wait¡±, - I interrupted her, - ¡°You should know that they killed my whole family, just before capturing me. You should know that all that¡¯s left for me is my hatred for them, but even so, hatred should not be misplaced. The monsters that took my family from me are dead. So listen to what I could learn from this, not just blindly rush to put a blame on a whole species. As I said, they didn¡¯t act like anything I knew about them. They were more aggressive, I would say even evil, and I have never seen ogre eat their own dead before. I even think it was one of their own taboos, in their long list of tribe rules. Besides that, we cannot rule out that there is some force behind this sudden invasion. We need to think carefully about everything, before making rash decisions. Just like you would never blame me for my races ability to turn into demons, at least give what I¡¯m saying a fair thought.¡± She took a long look at me and then nodded. ¡°Alright, as my mentor, someone I truly care for and trust deeply, I just can¡¯t dismiss what you said, but this doesn¡¯t change things for now. I can still send what you said to general Hendrik, but with no proof, it¡¯s up to him if he believes this and does anything with that information. The reality is that there are still groups of these monsters out there. Even if you believe they are being controlled, they are still out there killing people and so we need to stop them as soon as possible. Will you help me?¡± At that, I smiled at her again ¨C ¡°Like before, I will be there to support you. You can already consider myself one of your soldiers.¡± ¡°What silly thought, you being a soldier, with your skills you are already a knight. If anything, you are more than qualified to lead this company, at least more than I am right now. Let¡¯s go, I need to introduce you to the rest of knights, and we have a strategy meeting to attend. For now, I won¡¯t give out the news about what you told me, other than send a sealed letter to the general; otherwise, this might bring unrest to soldiers and bring down morale.¡± With that, we walked out of the tent. End of interlude ***Somewhere in what used to be forest*** **Day 6** *Trey* I woke up. That shouldn¡¯t come as a surprise to me anymore, especially after the last time I died, but it still kind of did. Leaning against a charred tree stump, I observed what must have been my charred lower body, laying nearby. ¡°Guess it¡¯s not mine anymore. Hmm, I guess I¡¯m actually immortal then, sigh.¡± ¡°That should be good in a situation like this,¡± ¨C I tried to cheer myself up, but somehow in light of the recent events the cheer seemed dull. Bristol was gone, presumably destroyed by a group of ogres. My own village was not even day¡¯s journey away from the town. It¡¯s safe to assume either village was destroyed or soon it will be. Here I lay naked, charred trees around me, with no idea what to do now. Hmm, first I should see what became of my pursuers and that rude guy, who shot a giant ball of fire straight at me, without even asking who I am. Still, guess I can¡¯t blame him. I would do the same to the fucker, who brought five bloodthirsty ogres to my campsite. It¡¯s not like I lost that much, only clothes I had. I checked around for anything useful, and after round of digging under some still smoking tree husks, I found a dagger in passable condition on ogre corpse. Well, they did have swords and axes too, but those were either too big for me to carry or burned so badly that iron was melted in some places. Ogres usually use iron weapons, and no sane merchant wants to visit them to sell steel ones, for obvious reasons. So the quality was crappy, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers. As for the guy that killed me in the first place, he was long gone somewhere or killed by fire, and I saw no reason to go looking for someone who thought I was dead. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll go back home and hope for the best.¡± ¨C I decided. I should learn from mistakes and just leave, but the village was my home. If there is a chance my warning might save some lives in case the Ogres still haven¡¯t gotten that far, even if the chance is slim, I had to risk it. I won¡¯t be able to sleep soundly if I just abandon everyone I ever knew. So I got up and went back where I came from. Worst case scenario, I can find closure on village situation, get some clothes, collect the money under floorboards, and then I will¡­ well¡­ ¡°I will decide after I get there.¡± ¨C With new determination and goal in mind, I travelled back. Chapter 3 – Just my luck ***Greenville*** **Day 6** *Trey* Empty, the whole town was empty of any signs of life. Thankfully, what¡¯s left of it was not heaps of corpses and ruined buildings; it was just empty of any people or ogres. Here and there, inside the houses, you could see signs of people having prepared to leave in a hurry ¨C clothes on the floor, half eaten food on the table and some upturned chairs, which nobody had bothered to lift up. ¡°At least, it seems they got away in time.¡± ¨C I breathed in relief. The only thing I found strange was the lack of any serious damage and looting. It looked like ogres only came through the village without even touching anything, as if something made them hurry to leave, or maybe they tried catching up to escaped villagers. Judging by the state the city of Bristol was in, you would think they leave the village in a similar rubble. Well, I suppose it was pointless to try to understand ogre thought process. It¡¯s not as if I knew them better, they would suddenly stop trying to murder me. I¡¯m pretty sure that chance had long passed, and it¡¯s not like I was responsible for cleaning up this whole mess. The ones that will do that will be the army or the church. They probably are already on the move to deal with ogres. Anyway, as far as I could tell, there were no clues lying about to where the people had gone and how long until they return. Besides that, there was no assurance that no ogres were still nearby, therefore, I took the leftover money from my house, some clothes from my neighbours, which seemed to fit me, and food for the journey ahead. In the east lay another small village called Burnsville. Contrary to popular belief, Burnsville isn¡¯t full of arsonists, the name actually came from famous adventurer Josef Burns, who apparently grew up there, but still, with a name like that, I held no hopes of it still being in one piece and not, you know, burned down. The only places, which could have survived ogre attacks, were cities. Cities had their own small armies protecting them, and not to mention that each city held a branch of church¡¯s paladin order. With that in mind, I headed for the next best thing on my list of places that were not immediately life-threatening - the city of Salem. If my luck gets better, maybe I will even find the rest of villagers there. ¡°This is going to suck, big time¡± ¨C I sighed. It was already bad enough to walk by foot from the forest to my village, but going to Salem was another thing entirely. It was probably 4 times further than Bristol from here. You know, you always take things for granted before losing them. Now that I had lost, my main means of transportation, as Donny was presumably either dead and in ogres belly or on an adventure of his life. Either way, I was not going back to check if he was still there, not going to risk another unfortunate encounter, that¡¯s for sure. Speaking of unfortunate encounters, I should get myself a proper weapon. The small dagger could serve its purpose in defending me against small animals, but versus something bigger and meaner, I would need something bigger, a role which sword might cover nicely. Even though I cannot use swords proficiently, I still have a huge handicap in being, you know, immortal and all that crap. Therefore, even if I have to give up an arm to get rid of my attacker, I should be fine. Thus, my next stop was a local smithy. Compared to town like Bristol, which had smithies full of all kinds of weapons, our little smithy had barely anything. I attribute this to the blacksmith not being particularly fond of leaving his life savings and products of hard work behind, he, probably, took all he could with him in a wagon, when everyone escaped from the village. Besides that, I dared to presume that the villagers didn¡¯t want to be empty-handed in case someone decided they were easy pickings. (I should have thought of that before) ¨C I mused, but alas let¡¯s see if I can find anything useful that¡¯s left behind. After searching a while, I found one half-finished sword. The metal part was in order, but it lacked wooden part of the hilt. Well, nothing a little improvisation can¡¯t fix. I went to blacksmiths bedroom, opened the bedside drawer and picked the first piece of clothing that was inside. Realising it was old smith¡¯s underwear; I discarded it and reached inside again. This time, thankfully, I got an old shirt, which I then proceeded to shred in pieces with my dagger. After wrapping the hilt part with strips of the shirt, I finally got something that I could freely hold in my hand. It didn¡¯t need to last long; it just needed to last until I was safe inside city walls. With any luck, I won¡¯t even need to use it. With everything in order, I started my journey to the closest city. Interlude ¨C Not what it seems ***Somewhere in forests of Kundun Empire*** **Day 6** ¡°So much for asking help to those weak mongrels,¡± ¨C growled Thaton. ¡°Go gobble shit, know was not me idea¡± ¨C Stuttered back Cramak ¨C ¡°Was me, kill them all, be done with it.¡± ¡°You mean, go eat shit, you know it was not my idea. Was it up to me, I would have just killed them all and be done with it. How long will it take for you to learn to speak properly?¡± ¨C Said Thaton. ¡°U lose teeth, speak me like that. Warchief orders, me speak already human¡± ¨C Growled back Cramak. ¡°Shut your traps, dipshits. We no have time to fight now. Need hurry to Warchief¡± ¨C Said Urmaram. Just as Thaton was about to try correcting Urmaram, I reached out and slapped Thaton across the face. Unprepared he almost lost footing for a moment, something that could cost him his seat at Warchiefs table, if it would have happened. Using hand to clean his face from blood, Thaton spat out a teeth and menacingly growled at me, baring his remaining sharp teeth in the process. *¡°You¡¯re going to regret this Saruk; your father won¡¯t be Warchief forever and when the time comes, well¡­ just watch your back then.¡±* ¨C He growled at me, this time using our own tongue. *¡°Shut your trap, or I will close it permanently. I don¡¯t need anyone¡¯s protection.¡±* ¨C I responded. ¡°Both you, stop. No time, need heed summons. Need speak human, train.¡± ¨C Urmaram stood between both of us, hands reaching around our throats. I didn¡¯t even see him move, in a split second, he had made both of us incapable of resisting and according to rules, this meant we needed to listen to his orders for the rest of day or get treated as outcasts by rest of tribe. I guess this wasn¡¯t that bad of an outcome, if I had fought that piece of shit Thaton here, it would bring trouble from his family. I wasn¡¯t worried about me, I would take them all on, but this may bring ruin to my fathers¡¯ plans. Besides that, Urmaram was on fathers¡¯ side, no reason to disobey him. ¡°Understood, us stop, Right Thaton?¡± ¨C I answered, while barely being able to get the sentence out, what with having my throat gripped and all. ¡°Yes, we are fine now.¡± ¨C He responded. With that out of the way, Urmaram quickly let us go and proceeded to move towards Warchiefs tent, with us quickly following him. Reaching the huge tent, we could already hear shouts coming from inside of it. Ogres were never good talkers. What was the point, when you could just use brute force to get what you want? It was a common belief that strong ogres make great leaders and great leaders make good decisions, thus you should follow good decisions made by great and strong leaders. The system was simple in its entirety, but it did work after all. So why change? How to prove you are strong? Well quite easy, you punch the opposing party until they cannot raise any objections anymore. Much easier than human politics, where weak constantly oppose strong and make foolish decisions that ruin their whole tribe. The only exceptions, with the strongest person being the unopposed leader in ogre tribes, was when the survival of the whole tribe was at stake. It was the Elders¡¯ decision when that time would be. Unfortunately, it seemed that not everybody had agreed to Elders granting father this responsibility. Not everyone agreed that this situation counted as a threat to our survival. Well, they were fools not to listen, not after what we had seen there. Anyway, best to prepare for anything before going in, ogre politics can become bloody, to say the least. *¡°I still think, we should move and look for southern tribes. These foolish humans don¡¯t deserve our warnings and we do not need their help!¡±* ¨C Just as I entered the tent, echoed loud voice. I knew whose voice that was. There was only one group in the whole tribe, led by one ogre, currently actively opposing my father ¨C Thaton¡¯s father Thumal. I snarled to myself. As much as I would like to ignore him, the fact was that he was second strongest warrior in out tribe, right after my father and before the third strongest ¨C Urmaram. *¡°Enough!¡±* ¨C Roared my father ¨C *¡°You will do as I have decided; it¡¯s my decision as the Warchief, who the Elders have selected.¡±* *¡°This is not over Shakh; you will lead us to ruin if nobody stops you!¡±* ¨C roared Thumal, as he stormed out of the tent. Now with only five people inside the tent: I, Thaton, Cramak, Urmaram and our Warchief Shakh, the tension in the air was slowly fading, and Shakh¡¯s face slowly relaxed. Urmaram in the meantime went to the corner of the tent and assumed guard pose. The rest of us, all stood still in front of Shakh, waiting for the Warchief to address us first, as the Elder¡¯s rules stated. Finally, he sighed and said ¨C ¡°Good you¡¯ve come, we need to discuss our next steps from now on.¡± While he did say discuss, it was more of him asking us to do things, with that in itself being the opportunity to learn from a leader. Something, Elders agreed to be necessary for anyone strong enough, to be a potential tribe leader. As such, this was a lesson in leading ogres, mixed with lesion of obeying you - the leader. ¡°Come, gather around.¡± - He then stood and went towards the round table in the leftmost corner of the tent, covered with maps of the terrain. Humans and daemons think us stupid beasts, but there is so much more when it comes to wars. You cannot always win a battle by simply charging in, you need a good strategy to win. Would they even believe if someone told them that? No, not with how our tries of making contact with them, had gone. Five scouting parties killed with a rain of arrows and magic before they even had the chance to talk with them. This was the main reason Thumal and Thaton were advocating force over diplomacy, that and because it clashed with what my father had decided. The thing they didn¡¯t understand is that we could never win against human/daemon combined armies that were larger than our northern tribe''s warriors combined, in a full-blown battle. You can only do so much, even when being better at fighting than humans or daemons. When magic is raining upon your army, and you cannot get close enough, pure strength and stamina become obsolete. This was our greatest weakness, we might be best warriors out there, but we could not produce even the smallest spark of magic. ¡°I¡¯ve made my decision, we are going south across the mountains to the Great Beast lands¡± ¨C said Shakh. ¡°Why?¡± ¨C Suddenly interjected Thaton, ¨C ¡°why not listen to my father and go to southern ogre tribes for help?¡± ¡°Not question Warchief,¡± ¨C immediately growled Cramak.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°It¡¯s okay, this time I will give you an explanation, seeing as how both you and your father cannot see, why I¡¯m doing this.¡± ¨C said Shakh. ¡°While it¡¯s true we might find help in southern tribes, and together we might even stop the scourge coming from the north, that''sa wholelot of "ifs¡±. Besides that, southern tribes would see us as weak, this means our own tribe would be dissolved and absorbed by them. We would gain slave status and lose our freedom. Do you understand now?¡± ¨C He asked. At this Thaton just nodded. I¡¯m sure he still doesn¡¯t agree, but Cramak was right, further questioning a Warchief would only lead to him being removed from war council training. ¡°Thus we will be going to the Great Beast lands, and joining in alliance with them. They are great warriors too; it will not be beneath us to do so. Still, there is something to we need to do about informing southern tribes of the oncoming crisis. While I don¡¯t want to lead all of us there, we should at least send scouting party to warn them. Whether they believe what we have to say, is up to them, but we are of one people, we should still do it.¡± At this, he took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. ¡°This is why we are sending you, young ones; it¡¯s time to do your part for our tribe. Your adulthood ritual is coming in three days, and after that, you will be sent to southern tribes.¡± ¡°But, I¡­¡± - I started to protest, only to get cut off midway my protest. ¡°No buts! You will all go Saruk. Being the son of chief doesn¡¯t excuse you from following orders, besides that, you three will not go alone. I will be sending Urmaram with you. He will help and teach you along the way. After warning them, you will meet us in the Great Beast lands. Urmaram will have a way of finding us. Listen to him and return as battle proven warriors.¡± ¡°Yes, Warchief!¡± ¨C We said as one. ¡°Leave now and prepare for your adulthood ritual.¡± As everybody turned and left, Urmaram and I stayed behind. ¡°Father, why are you sending Urmaram? He should stay here, so Thaton¡¯s father doesn¡¯t oppose you.¡± - I asked. He sighed and rubbed my head in response. ¨C ¡°You should understand that I cannot send three younglings alone, barely out of adulthood ceremony, for a mission like this. It was Thumal¡¯s idea in the first place to send you all alone, but I don¡¯t trust him. That¡¯s why Urmaram is going with you all to keep an eye out. Besides that, I don¡¯t trust Thaton enough, not to say the wrong things to the southern tribes.¡± ¡°It seems your mainland language training is coming along just fine. It will help you on this journey. This is why I¡¯ve ordered you all to practice it in your day-to-day speech. I will cancel the order when you head out, as out there, it¡¯s too dangerous to speak in a tongue you¡¯re not used to, and there may be wrong ears listening if you do. Now go and prepare for the ritual. I know you are more than ready, but this is important and failure is not an option.¡± Then he turned to Urmaram and said, ¡°Come, we still need to discuss things.¡± At that, I left the tent and went to find something to eat. To be honest, after all this training, thought of fulfilling an important mission for the tribe, and finally proving myself, was quite pleasant. End of interlude ***Deep in fuck-knows-where forest*** **Day 6-8** *Trey* I think, therefore I am¡­ lost. Not much of a life-changing philosophical saying, when you add the last part. For what seemed like hundredth time, I climbed another tree to check my surroundings. ¡°Yup, trees. A whole shitload of trees.¡± One might wonder how someone can get lost on one the best-travelled roads towards one of the biggest trade cities in the empire. Well, funny story that, I had to run for my life because a bunch of ogres decided to play tag with me. Didn¡¯t even let me chose if I wanted to participate in physical activities. Oh sorry, I lied, they did ask and it wasn¡¯t funny. They asked if I would be so kind to stop and have a nice long chat with them. Well, the words they used were more of ¨C ¡°Stop you, filthy spy. When we catch you, you''re going to tell us what you are doing snooping around our camp.¡± - Kind. What horrible lies! I WAS NOT snooping around, it¡¯s called moving while being careful to not run into someone or something, that would want to murder me. Well, I never said I was any good at it. However, to automatically presume I was a spy? How rude of them! Besides, who in their right mind would stop and wait for them to capture you, so they could ask you some nice questions. What will happen if my answers don¡¯t satisfy them? What then? Nope, not taking that chance. So I ran, ran through the woods as if my life depended on it. It somewhat did, in some convoluted way, well not going to discuss that philosophical theme right now. I even managed to get away, well falling off a cliff might have helped in that regard, but still, I did. On that note, it seems that if I¡¯m not blown to bits and my head is not separated from my body, the regeneration effect is almost instant. Therefore, after falling down and healing my broken legs, I managed to lose them. I would celebrate this, but as it seems I¡¯m lost and don¡¯t really know where the road is, I¡¯m still fucked. If I knew this would happen to me, I would have paid closer attention to old Mart¡¯s teachings. Old Mart was the best hunter our village had. In his free time, he tried to educate village children on how to find edible plants in forest, how to correctly place hunting traps, how to orient in forest among other things I deemed too boring to learn, and he deemed as things - ¡°everyone that isn¡¯t a moron, needed to know.¡± As previous carrier choice was never going to be a hunter before all this happened, I mostly spent my time skipping his lectures for more pleasurable pastime, namely wooing the opposite sex. Let¡¯s just say that I failed in both of the activities and leave it at that. So, what I can remember about orientating in the forest is limited, to say the least. ¡°Hmm, let¡¯s see, if I remember correctly, you could tell where north is by looking at how moss grows on trees.¡± Problem was that I have no fucking clue if the moss growing on one side meant it was North or South. One can see how well I paid attention to old Mart¡¯s lectures, and now it came back to bite me in the ass. Let¡¯s just pretend that moss likes warmth, and so it grows on the south side. That means I need to go opposite that. I think. Yes. Probably. Aww fuck it, not like I have a better idea. You know, mountains make great orienteering objects, to someone that is lost. You would think I¡¯m happy now that I¡¯m no longer lost. Let me spell it out for you ¨C ¡°I¡¯m not happy.¡± Maybe they do make great orienteering objects, but it was not something I wanted to see, after walking 2 days to a town that lies down the river, around it big grasslands (well except the forest in the southern part), and more importantly ¨C ¡°No bloody mountains in sight.¡± ¡°Fuck my life.¡± Seriously, fuck it. I¡¯m somewhere south, and most likely, these were ¡°The Silver Tops¡±. Mountains that divide the Kundun Empire from the Great Beast lands, best known for empire¡¯s silver mines and a large amount of beasts nesting in them. (So what now?) ¨C I thought to myself. I could try to go opposite direction of mountains and hope to reach the town. Problem is that I might reach ogres before reaching the town. Then again, it¡¯s not like I have somewhere else to go. On the west lay, one of the largest deserts on this continent ¨C The Sandy Desert. While it was not really imposing name (you can blame, our empires scholars great naming senses for that one), the fact was, that if I tried to cross it, it wouldn¡¯t even take 2 days for me to die from thirst, or at least in my case, wish for quick death. Being living husk, probably not a pleasant experience. North was unknown, possibly safety, possibly not. South was just straight out. I¡¯m not mad enough to try crossing, without even being near the pathway that merchants tend to cross. That left me with what? Going back east? That¡¯s where I already came from. So I should just go back to the village and wait for people to come back or army to get there? That wait might take weeks or months, but it was probably the safest route for me to take. ¡°Fucking hell, if I knew I had to go back in the end, I wouldn¡¯t have left in the first place¡± ¨C I screamed and kicked the nearby tree so hard; I think I broke my leg in the process. Fortunately, the pain faded almost immediately, thanks to me being awesome. ¡°Now if I only had clear indicating how far¡­¡± I was cut off by something large dropping on me and pressing me down. ¡°What the fuck!¡± I tried to resist, but all I got in response was a sharp pain in my back. That didn¡¯t really stop someone like me, but what did slow me down was the numbness that spread from the wound on my back to the rest of my body. It became harder and harder to move until finally, I couldn¡¯t. Next, I was unceremoniously tossed around, and that let me see my assailant. I never had Arachnophobia before. Well, this fixed that, real quick, as big hairy spider was currently using most of its legs to tie me up in a white silky thread. Honestly, I would love to say, I knew what kind of beast this was and what weaknesses it had, but the fact was that all I could think was ¨C (Shit, what a fucking huge spider, fuck I¡¯m screwed.) While left with my unmoving body and my horrified thoughts, spider unceremoniously proceeded to use the silk to drag me behind it to God-knows-where. Just as I thought things couldn¡¯t get worse, I saw more of the fuckers around. They were creeping along the same way that my captor was currently going. I counted at least six of them, possible more hiding around. It¡¯s not easy to count things when your head bumps on tree roots every few seconds. As I was about to count myself among the spider food, I felt my body sense returning. (Ha, you morons, seems like even your shitty poison can¡¯t keep me down for long.) Thankfully, they were instinct driven beast and thus disarming me wasn¡¯t on their priority list. Besides that, with how long it took me to cleanse this poison out of my body, approximately 10 minutes, I can understand why they didn¡¯t even need to do that. A normal person wouldn¡¯t be able to move for a long time. Ha, finally another bonus to being me! The thread the spider used was mostly there to help it pull me along, not to restrain me; the latter was left for poison. So I slowly used my right hand to pull out the iron dagger I got from well-cooked ogres and tried to position it closer for better reach. I could have tried cutting myself free right here and now, but being surrounded by at least seven spiders (including the one pulling me). My chances of winning were probably close to zero. Need to keep blade ready and wait for a good moment to strike. After 10 more minutes of horrible transportation, I found myself hanging in the air (Oh, I didn¡¯t think I would ever admit this, but I miss you, Donny, you might have been horrible mount, but you never pulled me around the dirt, trying to peel my skin off my back by pulling me around like a block. If I ever get to next life, I¡¯ll buy you another serving of fresh potatoes.) The spider was currently scaling a tall cliff as if it was a smooth road for it, and I was being pulled along for the ride. What greeted me was a huge cave. When I say huge, I mean actually huge. The entrance was barely noticeable from outside, but the inside could easily fit my whole village and then some. There were hundreds of those fuckers here. I saw webs everywhere, and in some corners, I could see what I presumed to be giant spider eggs. Okay, things are not going well. If my chances before were close to zero then my current ones were going in the negatives, if I get left here for the meal, I will never get out. I almost cheered aloud, when I realised I was being pulled in one of the smallest tunnels, away from the towering spider beast army. After what seemed like an hour, I was pretty sure our journey had taken us to the centre of the planet. Okay, I¡¯m being pessimistically sarcastic here, but the fact was, it was quite hot in here, and we¡¯ve been travelling on a downward slope all this time. Finally, we reached a root that seemed like endpoint of our journey. I could tell by the white cocoons around me, what will happen if I don¡¯t act now, besides that my spider friend was the only one here currently with me. So, when the bastard started to make me into a cocoon, I used the chance to stab my dagger with all my strength in one of its many eyes. Well, that made him mad, as I was immediately tossed aside by his long legs. Landing face first into a wall, I felt my teeth break and nose flatted, but I didn¡¯t really have time for complains, as I got up and pulled out my sword. The giant spider was thrashing about in an early silence, green blood flowing down its face. I really hoped it was silence, if it could communicate somehow, with the other spiders, my freedom will be short lived. I still didn¡¯t have time to worry about these things, so I carefully circled the trashing beast, looking for an opening (not that I knew how to look for one, or how to exploit it when I found it). ¡°Well here goes nothing, you piece of hairy shit¡± ¨C I said, as I just stopped looking for something I knew I won¡¯t find and just ran up to it and stabbed as many times possible, before being kicked again by its trashing legs. Not that it could stop me from just doing that, so I quickly got up and repeated the process, on now clearly weaker spider. Finally, covered in more of my own blood than in spider¡¯s green one, I sat down. ¡°I did it; I¡¯m a fucking monster slayer now. A really bloody adventurer. I hope you are proud of me, mom, after all this time I became what I didn¡¯t even want to be in the first place and followed your footsteps.¡± I sighed. I didn¡¯t want adventures. That was the reason I became a delivery boy in the first place. It was just the right amount of adventure for me. Not too boring and not too life-threatening. People tend to become more grounded in reality when one of your parents wasn¡¯t there when you were born because he had already died from monsters, and the other one just didn¡¯t come back one day from her usual forest patrol. I might have joked with my friends about becoming an adventurer, general, knight, etc. but doing it was something else entirely. Well not like it matters now, my choice was made for me, by everyone else I met. Starting with the big ball of doom, then ogres, and finally bunch of hairy spiders. Well, I didn¡¯t really have time to decide my future carrier choice right now. So, I got up and looked around, trying to listen for any spider movement. To my relief, it didn¡¯t seem anyone was currently on their way to put me six feet underground. Clear that nothing was getting ready to eat me, I took a closer look at the cocoons around me. Some were clearly beasts, by the many strange grown legs, arms and horns showing outside, but I see that some had humanoid forms. Well, if I had to face an army of giant spiders, it would be nice to have someone else on my side, so I proceeded to try cutting open some of the cocoons. ¡°Eww¡­ Fuck¡­¡± ¨C Most of them were not even recognisable as humans, daemons or ogres, while others were a bit more ¡°fresh¡± and didn''t sit well with my stomach. Just looking at them, made me remember what I saw at Bristol. After working for what seemed a few hours, I was left with two daemons and three humans in passable condition. When I say passable, I mean they might wake up one day. Honestly, I held no hope for at least two of them, but one of the daemons and two humans seemed in okay condition. I just had no idea how long until any of them wakes up, if at all. For me, the poison was 10 minutes of body paralyse. For them? I don¡¯t know. Maybe they will wake up in next 10 minutes, maybe never. I should at least wait a few hours, as one of the healthier looking ones seemed like a mage, judging by his clothing. I even seem to recall seeing his face somewhere before, but honestly, with all the goo covering him, it was hard to tell, besides, that could have been me passing by him in the town. Having a mage in my adventure party when breaking out of here will be invaluable. Even if he turns out to just be a novice. Well, now all that¡¯s left is waiting and praying that I am not discovered. Magic list
FIRE Novice Apprentice Adept Master Grandmaster Archmage Legendary
Fire 1 Fireball Scorch Fire torrent (aka flames) Fire nova, Meteor, Flire elemental
Fire 2 Fireblast Flare Inferno, Incinerate Burning world (aka meteor shower), Ifrit
Fire 3 Flamestrike, Pyroblast Hellfire ?????????Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
LVL 1 only after reaching master LVL 1 only after reaching grandmaster This is only general spell list. There is no chanting involved, only movement of mana. Thus, while it''s often the case that magic used is one of these, excellent mana control and great imagination with a little bit of luck can open new paths. Usually, these paths are dangerous to the caster, so they tend to cast already known magic¡¯s (known mana movement patterns). To answer the question of why Fire torrent is ranked less than Fire Nova and then Incinerate and Inferno suddenly is ranked the same. Fire torrent is shit skill simple as that, while fire nova actually deals damage. Fire torrent is only ranked so high, to begin with, because it is harder to use. In the case of Incinerate and Inferno, Incinerate has caught up in strength to Fire Nova (but now is direction), but is harder to use than Fire Nova, thus usually only Grandmasters have enough skill to use it. Inferno, in this case, is stronger than Incinerate but is not directional. As rule of thumb, if you can aim it without physically throwing, it''s harder to use and thus requires higher rank. Same reason why scorch, despite being weaker than fireball is ranked higher in difficulty. You should view ranks as the difficulty of use, not damage dealt. (My cat drew these don''t judge me.) Arrows representing how mana moves as a spell is cast, easier to move in a circle and not multi-directional. Besides that, Directional spells tend to channel mana through caster, thus needing higher mana control to not be burned by accident. In circle pattern, mana gradually changes into heat and fire as it moves outwards, requires less control for the caster to protect himself. This can be attributed to almost all spells that act similarly. There are exceptions to this rule when it comes to healing magic and in some specific cases. Chapter 4 – When everything goes south, you should just turn around and go north. Interlude ¨C A joyful adventure¡­ is not this ***Forest ¨C the one that¡¯s slightly on fire*** **Day 5-8** *Khanos* ¡°Fuck it¡¯s hot.¡± ¨C I cursed, as I ran through the forest. My strength was fading and not because my lack of mana, no, it was fading because I have been neglecting my physical exercises in the academy. Who could blame me at the time, I mean, I was a genius prodigy. If someone even mentioned the subject of me skipping few physical preparation classes or field trips, I would just point out, that compared to them, I was the one kicking ass and they were the ones who were still stuck as apprentices or adepts. Look who¡¯s laughing now, I certainly wasn¡¯t. Not with this burning sensation in my stomach, not to mention burning sensation outside my stomach, that could be attributed to flaming trees which surrounded me. No, the lack of mana might have something to do with it but facing the reality of the situation I knew better. Climbing over another fallen tree that was in my way, I kept running, flames rushing along me. No ordinary flames would be this greedy, these were mana powered ones, cast by master magician, and while the mana inside of them wasn¡¯t completely depleted, the flames would go on with incredible speed. ¡°Where is the bloody river,¡± ¨C I raged, just as the river came into my view, ¨C ¡°Figures.¡± The irony of life didn¡¯t even have time to strike, as cold water greeted me. It felt so good, it was even better than going for a dive after spending time in a hot sauna. I can say with 100% certainty, that this was the best swim, I ever had. Only when the air supply in my lungs started to dwindle, I hastily surfaced. Even with my subpar survival skills, it was easy to tell where the south was, you know, with the north side of the river being flaming pyre and all. So using my ¡°incredible¡± swimming and deduction skills, I located the opposite side and climbed out. As much as I enjoyed being in the water, you can never know what kind of nasty beasts may be lurking within, especially this far of civilization. Looking at the other side, I could see simultaneously awe-inspiring and horrifying spectacle. The forest was burning as far as the eye could see. I wasn¡¯t worried about this becoming problem for the common folk. Mana inside the flames should almost be gone by now and the forest wasn¡¯t that dry in the first place. The spread was only so horrifying because I used all my mana pool in that desperate attempt of self-defence. Besides that, it didn¡¯t concern me. I¡¯m getting out of the empire that wants me dead, and if I can send them a parting gift, well, that¡¯s fine by me. Still, it was nice to see that the river was wide enough to keep that shit on the other side. Fatigue struck me as lightning; damn but I needed a rest. At this point, I think I will take my chances, and just make a camp here. Some clean water and beauty sleep will do wonders for my skin complexion, and the fact I could barely keep walking. Not caring about any assassins anymore, as they probably weren¡¯t fireproof, I found the cosiest place I could and fell asleep. Morning, pain, headaches, the usual, for a second there I was hoping I would open my eyes, and around me, would be tavern room. My headache - from a major hangover from celebrating with my friends, pain in the leg - because of the pretty girl that fell asleep on my leg in an awkward pose. Nope, shitty forest it is. ¡°Well, a man can dream,¡± ¨C I sighed. I tried to get up only to fall with a scream, as my leg protested. Checking made it clear that yesterday¡¯s physical activities weren¡¯t doing any favours for it. The wound I burned close, had broken open in multiple places and was worse than before, at this point I didn¡¯t know what would kill me first: wild animals, beast or just plain simple infection. Sleeping in wet clothes hadn¡¯t helped either. At this point, I realised a headache might be from the fever I¡¯m having. I hope it¡¯s a common cold, otherwise, I¡¯m screwed. I heard sepsis could kill in a day if not treated, unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t see any apothecaries around here, and so all I could do is grit my teeth and go look for herbs. Therefore, I got up, took out my canteen and tried washing my wound as much as my skills allowed. I hope that can delay my horrible and painful death until I find something that can help. Finishing with my wound, I refilled my canteen, using magic to boil the water inside making it drinkable, and went on my herbal quest. Three hours later and I knew I was fucked, as I had no idea what to look for. Well, okay, that¡¯s not entirely true. I knew few plants that might help in this kind of situation, but I couldn¡¯t find any of them. The best I could do was to look for any plant I knew had something to do with treating wounds, and hope they had the needed effect. Another two hours later and I had a contraption I could apply to my wound, made from five different plants, I hoped had a medicinal effect I needed, so I mixed them together and using part of my shirt tied half them around the wound. Rest of them I ate, because what¡¯s the difference, dying from poisoning or dying from sepsis? I¡¯ll take my chances. I wanted to sleep; still, I couldn¡¯t return to the river and set camp again. I had no idea if the assassins just assumed I died in the fire or if they will keep on coming. Therefore, I kept moving forward. Mountains were not that far anymore, I could already see them. I needed to get there, find some cave that I could crawl into, and spend time nursing myself back to health. At this point, my only hope was that herbs worked and I was no longer slowly dying. As the sun slowly set, I knew I would not see it rise again, the last hours already proved that to me. Moving was getting harder, my sight was blurry, and my head kept pounding hard. I tried to look for any of the herbs I needed, but it was all for nought. One can only praise healers and their incredible skills at finding herbs. Suddenly, my vision shifted completely, as I fell; tripped by a root I didn¡¯t see. I tried to move, get up, do something, anything, but my conscience kept on slipping away. With a weak laugh, I thought about how in the end the thing that killed me, were not the numerous assassins they send but was something simple as blood poisoning. The only thing I regretted in this life was not killing the one who sent those fuckers. Well, that and the night my friends asked me to visit a brothel with them, instead of studying. ¡°Fuck, I could have said yes¡± ¨C I murmured as blackness took me. Death was painless, blackness, nothingness. ¡­ Aaaand boring, don¡¯t forget boring. I don¡¯t know how long I was here. I fell in and out of conscience. I felt nothing, couldn¡¯t move, couldn¡¯t see or hear. It was just black and boring. Is this what everyone feels when they die? (Come on god, if you are there, do me a solid and help me out.) ¨C I thought as loudly as I could. Can you even think loudly? I don¡¯t know, I just tried, but nothing answered. Finally, after some time I woke up again. This time, I knew something was different, this time, I could feel my body; I could feel the weight of it. I tried to move, but couldn¡¯t. I opened my eyes and blackness still greeted me. No, wait! I could see small lights illuminating what seems to be a cave ceiling. Was I not dead? What was with all the blackness then? How did I get here? Will I ever be able to move my body again? So many questions and no answers that came with them, still I was alive and I could feel. After few minutes of trying, I was able to move my fingers, and after few more, I could move my head. Looking around I could see other people in various conditions lying about. Some were missing arms, some heads, most looked like empty old dried up husks. The closest ones were thankfully the best looking ones. Where was I anyway? It looked like a cave full of corpses. Suddenly, a huge spider¡¯s corpse came into my vision. For a moment, I thought it was just a large grey rock, but taking a closer look revealed a grey hairy beast, the size of a brahham. It looked dead, and I honestly hoped it was dead. I was in no condition to fight that thing if it was just pretending. However, no, it had multiple cut wounds and its blood was pooling underneath it. Taking my time, and getting used to my numb body, I slowly got up. The other four, lying near me, were not a threat. Two were already dead, and other two were still unconscious. Quietly creeping my way to caves entrance, I found what seemed to be a guard asleep in his post. A strange guy for a guard, while he had a sword on his lap, he was dressed in peasant garbs and was sleeping on his job. Well, this will be the last mistake he makes. I slowly took his sword, placed it to his neck, and then in a quiet voice, while shaking him, said ¨C ¡°Wakey, wakey, you little piece of shit. We are now going to have a nice conversation about who you are working for and where are we.¡± He woke with a startle, somehow managing to draw blood from the sword. I cursed to myself, as he was of no use to me dead, then dumbfounded stared at the cut mark as it closed right before my eyes. Shit¡­ What? How? Was that healing magic? So fast, at least master healer skill required there. This is going to be a hard fight if I accidentally let him go. The person just looked and me and smirked. ¨C ¡°You should put that away, that¡¯s no way to treat someone who saved you.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see about that after you answer some question first.¡± ¨C I said, still gripping my sword to his throat. ¨C ¡°Where are we? Were you sent by them?¡± End of interlude Interlude ¨C Party for three ***Another forest, what else is new? *** **Day 6-9** *Saruk* Next days were quite uneventful. We spent them as usual, training and fighting, it was not that much different from everyday life at our tribal home. This is actually, what has been bothering me. Every time someone goes through adulthood ceremony it involves the whole tribe making a feast and celebrating, but I¡¯ve seen no action towards that goal. Hunters are still bringing back regular amounts of food. Firewood for pyres is not being prepared. I mentioned this to Cramak, but he just shrugged at me in his usual fashion. I should have known better than asking him about things, he would deem unworthy of his attention. Cramak has always been like that, I knew him since we were children after all. We are blood brothers, different mothers, but together by our trust and friendship. That wasn¡¯t always the case. I remember that when we were young, we constantly fought each other. I don¡¯t even remember why or who started it, we just didn¡¯t get along that well. It has been constant competition between us ever since, and along the way, the fights became less about punching each other because I hated the fucker and more about punching each other to improve our skills. Well, I heard worse reasons to call someone a friend, and I wasn¡¯t complaining. Being an ogre came with being ready to have someone attack you at any time, for many reasons, but mainly ¨C Position, dominance, ridicule, strength. It didn¡¯t help that ogre rules not only allowed this but also encouraged it. Want someone¡¯s spot in elders¡¯ council? Beat the living shit out of him and claim it as your own. Got a bone to pick with someone? Hit him so hard he doesn¡¯t remember his own name, and after that hit him some more for being dumb enough to forget his name. So, it came handy to have someone you could, if not trust exactly, then at least know he would challenge you openly instead of backstabbing or sucker punching you when you were down. Instead of making a deal out of his apathy, I just went and directly asked Urmaram what the deal was. This was the only time I¡¯ve had seen Urmaram sweat. I mean everyone knew he was a horrible liar, and that was the reason I asked him, but the dude just broke out sweating and ran off in an opposite direction. What the hell, what was that all about? Hmm, he probably knew I would get information out of him one way or another, so he just chose to bolt away. The only person who could keep Urmaram so tight-lipped was Shakh. That¡¯s where my leads end. Dad would never tell me anything I didn¡¯t need to know before it actually happens. Strange as it may be, I had no choice, but to wait it out. One bonus that we got from all this, was that those language training sessions ended. I could finally speak normally with everyone. I get now why he ordered us to learn, but I still remember the first few weeks of speaking and trying to explain that you wanted food and not to dig a hole in the ground. That one got me by surprise; it was one of the rules included in our training ¨C ¡°If you say something incorrectly and it could be interpreted otherwise, then you will have to live with consequences.¡± According to what I said, instead of wanting enough food for the day. I asked for enough work for the day. So, the cook just gave me a shovel and told me to dig from the kitchen door till tomorrow, in a straight line. I got blisters and he got an easy way to get rid of kitchen filth through the canal I dug. That one made me take this training seriously. As for Cramak and Thaton, well, Thaton took this as if his life depended on it. I think his father told him that if he makes a disgrace of himself, he will be removed from the family, but that¡¯s just a guess. Cramak on the other hand, in his usual fashion, just shrugged and did his own. He never complained at the punishments, but then again, he never did talk much or care about things. Anyway, it seems like there won¡¯t be any worthwhile celebration before we leave. Just as I was about to live with that happy thought, Cramak came to visit. Apparently, he just didn¡¯t want to leave like that, so instead, he used some of his favours with the other ogres and got us a bag full of booze. The plan was for us to make our own fun, and spend the day drinking and hunting animals in the forest, as our own little graduation party. That did surprise me, as I didn¡¯t expect Cramak to be the one who would start something like this, but I guess even a guy apathetic as he is, wants to go into adulthood with a bang. Before we even got started, Thaton got a hold of the news and insisted on joining us. Sometimes, I just don¡¯t understand the guy, he hates my guts, and now he wants to join? All right, I¡¯ll allow it this time, besides it¡¯s as much of his celebration as it is ours, well that, and I was afraid he would tell on us if we didn¡¯t let him join. Long story short, we now stood in front of our Warchief, having the worst hangover ever. Apparently, last night we went around trying to pick a fight with everyone we met, and someone had seen Cramak wrestle a bear barehanded. That might explain why we found him bloody next day (though, most of the blood was not his). That was not all, as apparently, because of us, tribe needed to move a camp day earlier. In our drunken stupor, we had chased away a potential spy, that our hunters had been stalking. It was hard to look into father¡¯s eyes. I think, even the apathetic Cramak was a bit ashamed. Though you could hardly tell, by the grin he had when Shakh recounted reports about his bear fight. Urmaram was standing in the corner holding in a fit of laughter, and being quite unsuccessful at doing so. Thumal was just looking at us with a complex expression, something between disgust and amusement. I had to say, that I almost split a grin too, but I was not that thick-skinned, and in the end, couldn¡¯t manage a laugh. As for Thaton, he currently was undergoing what I could only describe as morphing into a white mushroom ¨C Getting paler and smaller with each sentence. Shakh sighed, for what seemed hundredth time. ¡°You dumb youngsters, what should I do with you now? Should I just strip you of your status and make you work as mules for the rest of the year?¡± I shivered, and just like that, any semblance of a grin was gone from our faces. It seems we fucked up big time. Argh, if only my head wasn¡¯t pounding right now, making it hard to think of anything to say. ¡°I really should,¡± ¨C He said with a grim expression, ¨C ¡°is this how upcoming adults should behave?¡± I wanted to say sorry, to say that it won¡¯t happen again, but excuses were not our people¡¯s way. What¡¯s done is done, and we would have to live with it. No matter the punishment, we will have to accept it with heads held high. ¡°Until adulthood ceremony comes, you will all stay in this tent. I will discuss with others what to do with you in meantime.¡± With that, they left and we were now alone. ¡°Fuck!¡± ¨C I could only say that to this situation. Thaton couldn¡¯t be forced to express himself, as he was currently busy having a moral dilemma about whether or not he should go kill a dragon to recover his lost honour (basically a suicide mission). Cramak on the other hand still had a smile on his face, and when I turned to him, to ask if he found all of this funny, he just winked and refused to answer. As for me, well, I honestly don¡¯t know, I didn¡¯t regret what we did. It was fun and from what I heard, the only thing that required punishment was messing with hunters prey. So, as I had nothing better to do, I just leaned against the wooden table and started studying maps. Currently, the camp was south of a city called Salem. We tried to contact them many times, but alas, all our scouts were met with arrows and magic. Thus, we chose to abandon the ungrateful bunch, and focus on leaving this doomed land as soon as possible. Doomed, yes that would perfectly explain the situation. Corruption everywhere, the invaders left nothing to chance, and those that didn¡¯t join them were massacred. Worse than that, everyone who joined, at the promise of power, changed for worse. The change was gradual at first, many wanted to join as they didn¡¯t notice anything wrong with the free power they have been given. As months passed, we became aware that everyone who agreed was no longer the same. Left with the choice of becoming slaves, fighting them and dying, or try to run and warn others, we chose the latter. If our elders were correct the power they gained was through the mean of forcing spirits to serve the host. The invaders said it was different from demon possession, and in a sense, it really was, at least at the start. Days passed and the corrupted didn¡¯t lose themselves, they didn¡¯t grow demon horns, didn¡¯t change physically, of course until they did, and then it was already too late. They still looked the same, but when you spoke to them, you could see the never-ending hunger in their eyes. Thus, we left while we still could, and they followed our footsteps, chasing us down. If nothing changed, our small group would need to cross Red Run River and travel to border of Death Sea on our way to southern ogre tribes (I refused to call it Sandy desert, as humans decided to. The name was insulting to one of the continents deadliest places. We ogres respect enemy that can threaten us). While the rest of tribe use mountain pass to go south into the Beast lands. I really hope, they still decide to send us for this mission; it would bring us shame if we are too incompetent after what we did. After few hours, another ogre brought us food. I tried to ask him what had the Warchief decided, but he refused to answer and murmured - ¡°Warchief¡¯s orders¡± ¨C as he left. At this point, it had become so boring, that I suggested we hold sparring session with the three of us to pass time. Cramak was all for it, and even Thaton regained some semblance of an ogre as he agreed. Few hours and couple of bruises later, we still had no way of knowing, how long we had to stay here. I mean, they couldn¡¯t make us stay here until tomorrow. Today¡¯s already day that adulthood ceremony should be held. Thankfully, I finally heard footsteps nearing the tent. I sighed in relief; the wait was more of punishment than anything I could imagine they would ask from us. Tent entrance flew open as Shakh came in. I was about to ask them about our punishment, but the ceremonial robes he was wearing, made all my questions stuck in my throat. ¡°Come.¡± ¨C Only one word from came from our Warchief, as he turned and left. I looked at the other two: Cramak incredibly calm as always and Thaton who looked like he just had been ordered to walk on his hands for the rest of his life. I was somewhere in the middle, I guess. With no other choice, I took a deep breath started walking, with both of them following behind. What greeted us, was a huge circle of ogres, with Warchief in the centre, everyone looking solemn. There was huge pyre in the corner, still unlit. While we still tried to take in our surroundings, the Warchief spoke - ¡°What shall we do with the troublemakers?¡± ¡°Burn them! Kick them out! Kill them,¡± ¨C answered shouts from all sides. I gulped at that. Surely, nothing we had done required any of those punishments. I tried to say something, but before I could, I heard laughter all around. In confusion, I looked at the faces laughing their ass off, even my father and the always-angry Thumal were chuckling. Frozen, I stood there trying to understand what joke, I was currently missing, as suddenly Urmaram came and pulled us along to the centre of the circle, I could hear him chuckling along the way. ¡°You should have seen your faces.¡± ¨C Urmaram said as we neared, Shakh and Thumal, - ¡°Priceless!¡± ¡°What do you mean, what about punishment, what¡¯s going on?¡± ¨C I asked confused. ¡°Ha! What punishment? Do you really thing ogres care about a bunch of youngsters getting drunk before their big day?¡± ¨C Still laughing answered Shakh. ¡°That was just a ruse we put together to get you stay in one place, while we finish preparations for the ceremony.¡± ¨C Inserted Thumal ¡°We even had Urmaram ask Cramak, to help us with that.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t village have to move because of us?¡± ¨C I asked. ¡°Bahhh¡± ¨C said Urmaram ¨C ¡°You think such a little thing at the day before the celebration is going to go punished? You should have seen the three of us before we went through our own ceremony. Shakh burned down five tents because in his drunkenness he thought dragons were invading, while Thumal went to nearest human settlement and asked for majors daughter¡¯s hand in marriage, just because we said he wouldn¡¯t do it.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Khekhem¡± ¨C coughed Thumal ¨C ¡°That¡¯s rich, coming from someone who in the same evening managed to frolic around dressed as what you said was paladin garb, but looked more like what humans wear at their weddings.¡± Suddenly I turned and punched Cramak¡¯s shoulder: ¡°That¡¯s for not telling us, you asshole.¡± He just grinned back and shrugged: ¡°What Warchief says, goes. Ha! Was very funny though, at one point I thought Thaton was going to piss himself from worry.¡± ¡°Was not!¡± ¨C Beet red Thaton countered. ¡°Sure, sure.¡± ¨C Cramak just shrugged. ¡°All right youngsters, you can already see we went easy on you, but now enough jokes. Let¡¯s get this ceremony started!¡± ¨C Shakh said, and then in louder voice shouted ¨C ¡°Music! Fire!¡± Soon, the beats of drums sounded around us in a steady rhythm and the pyre was going on in flames. I was currently busy trying to learn how to dance, from a bunch of girls that surrounded our little group. Ogre warriors never made for the best of dancers, but every tribe had their own traditional dance. Though I heard that humans describe our dancing as more of a ¡°jumping and shoving¡± everyone. Silly humans, they know nothing of art. For that matter, I didn¡¯t know anything about it either, but dancing with pretty girls made me want to learn more. Long into the night when the silver moon was high up in the night sky, and the number of drinks we shared couldn¡¯t be counted on both hands and feet, the Warchief gathered us again. This time he held in his hands three curved blades. ¡°Every warrior needs their own weapon,¡± ¨C he began ¨C ¡°As now you all have officially become one, you shall receive blade to keep with you. It will be in your care, and with enough training will become part of you. That being said, I expect every ogre in my tribe to know how to use any weapon, and how to fight without one. Don¡¯t let this blade become a burden, you must think of it as a tool, and a tool is only as sharp as its wielder.¡± ¡°We understand¡± ¨C came our response. ¡°Now don¡¯t let me distract you anymore. Go and have some fun, but remember that tomorrow you will all have to leave on your mission.¡± The night ended and the morning came, anyone watching would see four ogres leaving southwest. All of them looking like they had a horrible headache. End of interlude Interlude ¨C Biding my time ***Ogre encampment, prison*** **Day 9** Chains, if not for these chains, they would all die. I would give my life to kill them all. How dare they capture and torture my people. Do they really expect we would accept their offer? I could already see corruption seeping into their eyes, something that had slipped past us before, but now that I knew what to look for, I could see it. They may look like ogres, but I knew better, this curse had to be destroyed. From 20 of our group, now only six remained. I could hear their breaths in the nearby cells, the benefit of having better hearing than average, that came from me being so pure of blood. Not to mention our race had innately better hearing than others did. This, however, didn¡¯t help much when shackled like this. Somehow, they had gotten themselves a handful of collars. No, not the ones they used on unfortunate slaves. These ones were made specifically to counter mages. As I hopelessly tried to gather my magic again, I could already feel it slipping past me, avoiding my control. Nothing I could do to influence mana, not even constant training had let me counter the effects. Everyone praised me, called me one of the top candidates for the throne. Now, look where I ended up: helpless, seeing my people die before me. All because we lost our caution and accepted, their feast of good will, in the name of our new alliance against our common threat. Well, we were too late, as corruption had already spread here. The metal bars on my prison cell rang and a gruff voice interrupted my thoughts. ¡°Hey, filthy bitch, the Warchief is willing to give you another chance.¡± ¡°There is nothing to discuss, with you corrupted ones. Nothing you say will convince me.¡± ¨C I answered with more bravado in my voice than I actually felt. ¡°We will see about that.¡± ¨C He said, pulling me up and bringing me to their torture chamber. They never did touch me, but they did make me watch my people suffer, something to do with me being a powerful bargaining tool, even if I was not willing to agree. I followed willingly, this time, seeing one of my former guards pulled along. My people are strong, they did not cry out when tortured, but watching something like that was hard. Every time I refused to watch or closed my eyes for too long, one of them was killed. I gritted my teeth and kept on following. My chance WILL come. End of interlude Interlude ¨C When the duty calls *** Ogre camp near the hound valleys*** **Day 5-9** *Jeanne* Meeting went as could be expected; nobody had anything new to say anyway. The fact remained that we had to do our part and protect the people. We decided on sending out individual scouting parties that would look for large groups of ogres, while we regroup at Salem. It¡¯s not as if waiting at this camp spot, would give us better leads. Positioning ourselves at Salem would allow us to receive news on ogre movements from incoming refugees, and at the same time give my troops time to relax and resupply. We¡¯ve been marching through these woods for two weeks already, and while we could remain here, it would be pointless to do so. Other than that, I¡¯ve been catching up with my mentor and friend Aeania. It was horrible, how much she had to go through, just the thought of it made me shiver. Thankfully, now she¡¯s here with me, and I will make sure nothing like that ever happens to her again. Currently, I was in the middle of sparing session with her. Wooden sword brushing past my helm, I ducked under the blow and tried to reach her left side with an attack of my own, only to almost lose my balance when her gauntleted hand angled my strike to miss her. I recovered quickly by rolling on the ground and going into defensive position to receive the strike I knew was coming. We had discarded shields at the start, just to test our skills in a fight without one, and now the only choice left was trying to angle her blow while sidestepping it. I couldn¡¯t block it straight on, as my footing was still off my centre of balance, because of my improvised roll. In a straight contest of her blow against mine, I would lose. Therefore, I tried just that and managed to pull it off, just to stop as her right foot met my unguarded side. That, combined with my bad footing, made me fall, and soon I found her sword near my throat. I sighed and gave her my best pouting face, - ¡°You would think, that the captain of knights, should be able to beat her subordinates in a sword fight, but here I am, sitting on my ass for the tenth time today. You sure you went in retirement and not on a journey to become master swordswoman?¡± ¡°Well, I would lose your respect as a mentor, if I let you get easy wins. Besides that, you definitely have improved since the last time I saw you, but then again I expect nothing less from a paladin that skipped most of what she called ¡®boring ceremonial preaching¡¯ to practice in swordplay.¡± ¡°They were boring and you know it!¡± ¨C I tried to defend myself. ¡°Well, that¡¯s something you shouldn¡¯t be saying as a paladin. What if the church¡¯s inquisition hear you say that?¡± ¡°I still pray and do believe, but that doesn¡¯t mean that sometimes listening to the same thing over and over again, is not boring. Besides that, you are not an inquisition, you are my friend, and I know you would never get me in trouble. Enough of that, tell me what my mistake was this time? I thought I had you.¡± ¡°Your fault lies in that you don¡¯t think about how your moves will flow into next one. Your use of tricks is praiseworthy, but your follow ups are something to be worked on. I had you beat when you first lost balance, everything after that, including the straight on blow and the kick, was just me following up on that. Still, if I didn¡¯t succeed at any of those points, I had back up plans on how to deal with you. Jeanne, it seems like you never consider that your feints may fail. While it¡¯s good to have an optimistic outlook on life, this may cost your life in a real fight. You should always have a contingency plan when performing a feint.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll take that in mind next time, but I think we should stop for now; they are already starting to pack camp together. We still have day¡¯s travel before we reach Salem¡± ¨C I said. ¡°All right,¡± ¨C she agreed while helping me get up, - ¡°It will be nice to finally live somewhere with hot water and good food.¡± I agreed with that notion full-heartedly, a hot bath had long been on my wish list. Therefore, we packed our stuff again and continued our journey north. Long in the night, we finally reached the city. I ordered Kingsley to make sure our troops resupply in case we get reports of new ogre sightings, and went to check on military headquarters. I still needed to send a message to General about what Aeania¡¯s discovered and report our own progress. Walking through the main entrance, I was met with people scrambling about, which would be a common sight, if not for the weapon crates that were being filled, and the obvious signs of knights getting ready for the journey. Strange, I haven¡¯t heard anything about defence sortie. So, I tried to ask one of the knights about the current situation, but he just said something about captains orders and told me to ask the captain. ¡°Oh Jeanne, you are here, great, I was going to send my messengers to reach you, but this saves me the trouble,¡± ¨C came the voice that I recalled belonged to Captain Colin of the city guard. ¡°Colin¡± ¨C I greeted ¨C ¡°What the rush? Are there news about the monster attack on the city?¡± ¡°Yeah about that, we have been recalled to capital by the General.¡± ¡°What? Why? If you leave who will be in charge of defending nearby villages?¡± ¡°Now, now Jeanne don¡¯t get worked up, it was not my idea. This is a direct order from General himself and when I say we I mean it includes your unit too. Here¡¯s the letter we received.¡± ¨C He handed me a plain letter that was marked with General¡¯s official seal. By the order of his majesty, Emperor Emhyr, all troops under the command of General Hendrik need to make haste and return to capital of our Empire. Any unit refusing to do so will be held as traitors to the crown and will be treated as such. Sealed and signed by General of the Holy Kundun Empire ¨C Hendrik ¡°Well this is only my copy; it seems every captain currently outside of capital received the same letter. Captain Yanos already left this morning. We still need to gather our equipment and then we will be on our way too. If you want to read your letter, you can just ask the squire over there.¡± ¡°You still didn¡¯t tell me about who will stay in the city. Are we leaving knights to protect them?¡± ¨C I asked. ¡°Well I would love to, but you saw the orders. Not many would choose to go against a direct order from the crown and General. That leaves me with almost no volunteers for the job. There are few wounded knights who are exempted from going, but you are free to ask your unit, if they want to risk being labelled as traitors, just to protect some peasants.¡± With that, he turned and left. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know what to make of this. With all that¡¯s happening around here, I knew that General had to have good reason to call us back. Still, didn¡¯t explain why he wouldn''t leave anyone here to protect the people. I caught the scribe and read my own letter, but the content remained same. Well, crap seems like that hot bath will have to wait after I visit the capital and meet the general. End of interlude ***Spiders nest*** **Day 9** *Trey* Well, that talk went well. The mage guy was suspicious of everything at first, but thankfully I managed to convince him that this was not the best place to start testing if he can burn me before I can kill him. Khanos, he was called, and from the fragments of information, I managed to piece together, he was the asshole that turned me in charcoal and burned down half the forest in the process. Not that I¡¯m going to tell him that (Dude you remember how you cooked me alive in the forest, yeah about that¡­). That conversation could only go downhill from there. Therefore, my backstory was, that I was on my way to meet my new magic master, who would teach me the art of healing when bandits ambushed our wagon, and after I escaped them, spiders caught me. Other than that, it seems that someone is hunting him down, that made him really nervous and suspicious, overall a hard person to talk with. He didn¡¯t just straight admit those things, but you can only be so stupid not to piece everything together when the questioning starts with ¨C ¡°Who are you and who hired you to kill me.¡± Safe to say, that neither he nor I, would have to worry about assassins. I would love to see them try to reach us now. Long story short, we decided to wait for the other two to wake up. I say two because of the four people left, one daemon and one human had already stopped breathing. Nothing I could do there with my current skills and resources, sad as it may be. We took turns, watching for any movement from nearby caves, and soon we had another companion to talk to, as the remaining daemon woke up. This time, talk about our current situation went smoother. Mainly because the frightened girl didn¡¯t say much of anything, and best of all - didn¡¯t try to kill us. I counted that as a plus, the fewer people try to kill me the better, and I wasn¡¯t quite sure Khanos had crossed me out of kill list yet. ¡°It will depend on the truth of your words,¡± ¨C he had said. From what we manage to gather, Xaies was travelling merchants daughter that had ran when bandits ambushed her father¡¯s wagon and were caught by something bigger and hairier than bandits were. Well, that sucked. A bit because her story was eerily similar to mine, making it a bit suspicious, and because while I didn¡¯t hope that every surviving member of our dwindling party was profession monster slayer, a merchant¡¯s daughter that was raised as princess and hadn¡¯t fought single time in her life, didn¡¯t rate high on ¡°helpful people to have around when giant spiders attack¡± list. For that matter, a guy that uses fire, as main means of attack wasn¡¯t that amazing in closed of spaces like caves. I¡¯m sure I would be fine, but lack of breathable air might be unhealthy for rest of them. I gave her one of the daggers, I found on deadhunters and small shieldfrom some knights. I swapped my own makeshift sword for better one. Khe knight''s blades were currently too heavy for me to swing freely so I took what looked like the lovechild of sword and dagger. For all that, people praisearmy equipment; it was plain and simple one. Not one of those magic swords you hear heroes find in old abandoned caves. Just slightly curved for slashing with a pointed end for better penetration, you could see it was meant for killing unarmoured targets, compared to knight¡¯s one, that could penetrate armour just by its weight. Other than that, I got myself a shield. While it was true that I didn¡¯t really need one, it would be quite suspicious if I just blatantly disregarded my health. At that point, our fourth companion woke up. I held high hopes for this one, as his arm muscles were probably larger than my waist. As it turns out, life tends to let me down a lot. Arnold was a lumberjack and got his build by working all his life as one. He was so proud of the fact; I swear I almost dozed off when he started to recount how his family in all their generations have been lumberjacks. Finally, we got him a battle-axe and that shut him up for a minute. That made us four people party, ready to set out on our magical journey out of spider-land. I did the best thing that came to my mind and referred leader¡¯s duty to someone else, namely Khanos. He seemed smart enough to get us out of here; I mean, mages should be smart, right? He did seem reluctant and told us not to expect him to save anyone, but in the end, agreed. There was little complaining from Arnold who insisted on strongest being leader (namely him and his muscles), but when we reached first spiders, a couple of fiery explosions from Khanos convinced him. My previous fears about the lack of breathable air were proven uncalled, as Khanos explained that every good fire mage should be able to use air magic for clearing the air and sustaining flames, and only novice and apprentice ones still used pure fire magic that drained nearby air. Apparently, it was barbaric to do and he scoffed at my suggestion to limit flames. Well, at least I now knew he was adept, the more information on my potential threats the better. However, for all his boasting it was hard to take a person, that limped with every step of the way, seriously. He did ask me to heal him, which was a problem on its own, as I had no idea how to do something like that. It was hard to spin convincing enough lie about why I couldn¡¯t, and that had led to our previous conversation about how I was not bleeding to death when he accidentally pricked my neck. This, in turn, cemented me as our party¡¯s shitty, barely novice mage that selfishly could only heal himself. ¡°Hey guys, you sure we are going the right way?¡± ¨C Suddenly asked Xaies Khanos, who was in the middle of bragging stopped at that, - ¡°Wait, I was just following Trey. I have no idea where we are and how to get out.¡± ¡°Me? I thought you were our leader now. I was just going behind you while you dealt with everything in our way.¡± ¡°Well, you were the only one still awake when we got here.¡± ¨C Arnold helpfully said. ¡°Crap. So we are lost?¡± ¨C asked Khanos. ¡°Umm, I guess we just need to head the way that goes up. I only remember being dragged through countless tunnels, with most of them on downwards slope.¡± ¨C I said. ¡°That¡¯s the best you can come up with?¡± ¨C asked Khanos ¡°Hey look who¡¯s talking! You were just a pretty cocoon before I freed you. A bit more ¡°thanks pall for saving my life¡± and a bit less sass from you, all right?¡± He just huffed at me and turned to walk in a different direction. A few hours later, we made camp in one of the side tunnels. Khanos insisted he needed to replenish his emptying mana reserves and besides that, I had already grown tired of the constant complaining from our princess Xaies. That was what we started to call her after the fifth time she asked for a break, seriously, we were walking for less than half an hour at that point. That nickname shut her up for about 10 minutes, after which she kept going on and on about how life was horrible for her, and how her father would not allow this. I was this close to telling her, that her father was most likely dead at the hands of bandits, but even I was not that big of an ass. The good news was that we seemed to get closer to the surface; the caverns were getting wider and the number of spiders larger. ¡°Khanos, how many spiders can you kill at once, if you had to face thousands of them together?¡± ¨C I asked. ¡°What? Why do you need to know?¡± ¡°Well, remember how I was awake the whole way? The front cave is as big as a normal village and had hundreds of spiders, not to mention that more could hide nearby. Besides that, we have only seen the small ones. I remember seeing larger ones guarding the entrance.¡± ¡°Shit, you only tell us now?¡± ¨C asked Arnold in an outraged voice. ¡°Well, does it matter, doesn¡¯t change the fact that we must get out of here.¡± ¨C For some reason, Khanos was the one coming to my defence, - ¡°As for how many, it¡¯s hard to say. If they grouped together in an orderly manner and didn¡¯t try to kill us, maybe all of them, considering that they won¡¯t just let us kill them, I¡¯m not that sure.¡± ¡°Hmm, then we need to either find a way around or plan how to get through them without causalities.¡± ¨C I said ¨C ¡°Do you perhaps have anything bigger than that remote firebomb, something that could carve a path along the way.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called flare, not firebomb and I do have other spells, I have one similar to what you described and it wouldn¡¯t leave me without any mana left in the middle of spider army, but it would require me to be immobile.¡± ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡± ¨C Curiously asked Xaies. ¡°Incinerate, but like I said it would require all my focus just to use it, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to move from the spot. Pointless if I just fry few of them while standing still, and when my mana ends, the rest just kill us.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t Arnold carry you while you cast it?¡± ¨C She asked At that he froze and had a thoughtful expression - ¡°That might be the dumbest best idea or best dumb idea I have ever heard. I¡¯m always amazed how close genius and stupidity intercede.¡± ¡°Wait, you mean something like that could work?¡± ¨C I asked. ¡°Hey, did you just skip past the part where he called me stupid?¡± ¨C interjected Xaies. ¡°It¡¯s a matter of can¡¯t move because all my concentration is on the spell, not that spell roots me in place. Grandmasters would not have this limitation.¡± ¨C He said absentmindedly. ¡°Well, Arnold, you up for it?¡± ¡°Up for what?¡± ¨C He asked. Apparently, he had fallen in deep thought after I described the huge spider cave, so we had to explain things to him. ¡°Well it¡¯s doable,¡± ¨C he said while scratching his bushy beard, - ¡°You are scrawny enough and will not be too heavy of a burden to run with. I¡¯m more worried about how we would protect ourselves from sides, because as I understand the spell is one directional, making us big targets in the process. I would have both of my hands full if I want to carry him so he could cast the spell and so I could run fast enough. That leaves our shitty healer and spoiled princess protecting my backside, and let me tell you that the thought of it makes me more than unwilling to join your suicide mission.¡± ¡°Hey! You know I¡¯m still here, he may be a shitty healer, but I¡¯m not a spoiled princess, and don¡¯t call my ideas dumb if you plan to use them! Besides that, I will let you know that my skills with shield have improved greatly since we left that cave.¡± ¨C Xaies cried out. ¡°I have no comment on the shitty healer part, but I will do my best to keep any stray spiders off your back.¡± ¨C I said, - ¡°We should remember that this is only planned in case we find no alternative paths out. If we find differed road outside, there is no need for this, if we don¡¯t, then we don¡¯t really have other choices. I¡¯m pretty sure these spiders are poisonous to eat and we only have water to last 3 more days. It¡¯s pointless to argue about it now.¡± With that in mind, we packed up our little camp and went on our search for an exit, which we found soon enough. In fact, we found about seven exits in total, but only one was usable by people. The other six were inaccessible by anyone that wasn¡¯t born with wings or that didn¡¯t have multiple hairy legs that can walk on walls. That left us with a huge cave in front and about thousand spiders in our way to exit. I was thankful, that they mostly had shitty sight, proven by how we currently didn¡¯t have to fight our way through. Slowly and quietly backing away to the previous chamber, we sat in quiet. Finally, Arnold broke the silence: ¡°So, what now?¡± ¡°Now we either go with our stupid plan or figure something better.¡± ¨C I answered, - ¡°Currently I¡¯m out of amazing, ground-breaking ideas. Any volunteers want to share theirs?¡± My sarcasm was met with silence. That didn¡¯t bode well, currently, I would be happy if someone just told me what to do, and that thing would not include us trying to fight our way through. ¡°We still have few days left of supplies to search for another solution, but every day we spend here is taking a risk that they would discover us. Currently, I¡¯ve been lucky to kill every spider along the way, before it calls for help. Don¡¯t know how long that luck will hold.¡± ¨C said Khanos. It was decided that acting sooner rather than later, was for the best. Now we stood at one of the side tunnels. Khanos in the arms of Arnold in a princess style carry, Xaies and I covering the back and sides. ¡°If anyone ever mentions this to anyone else, or reminds me. I¡¯m going to slowly cook you alive,¡± ¨C said the red-faced Khanos. ¡°Sure, sure Ms Khanos, do your best.¡± ¨C trying to unsuccessfully stifle a giggle, I answered. Where I was trying, Xaies was not. At least she was being quiet while doing so, but I can already see Khanos face becoming stormy. ¡°Now, look here you bunch of inbred dogs¡­¡± ¨C he started, but I cut him off. ¡°Okay, we will stop, we are thankful for your amazing mage abilities. Are you guys ready?¡± Everyone nodded and our little procession ran inside the large cave. Flames started launching from his outstretched hand in front of him, burning everything in his path, as we ran forward. We ran while hugging the left wall and that, at least, only made us defend right side and back, but it didn¡¯t take long for spiders to react, and soon I had my hands full defending from a bunch of legs and fangs. I ducked under one leg while slashing in the general direction it came from, feeling the satisfying sound that came from my sword reaching its target. Still, I couldn¡¯t just stop and look as we were racing forward. For the most part, spiders still seemed in a state of shock and that helped us reach around the middle of the cave. That¡¯s where things went wrong. From the start, I picked the hardest position ¨C right side, on account that I knew any stray attack would hurt me less than anyone else in my party, and left the easy back to our weakest member. I figured that if we were fast enough, it would not matter, but I was wrong in the end. Having even less skill with handling heavy objects than me, Xaies was soon knocked off balance and fell down. That would not be a problem in itself if we had noticed it sooner. Unfortunately, I was currently busy making Arnold and Khanos safe, and couldn¡¯t pay attention to her. Her scream pierced the cavern air, as I took a quick look back. Three spiders currently surrounding her and the only person currently free to help was me. I turned, hoping I get there in time when a roar from Arnold stopped me. ¡°Leave her, it¡¯s already too late. Only Gods can save her now.¡± Taking a quick look, I realised the truth of those words. In her desperation, she took the easy path out and forged a contract. I couldn¡¯t blame her, she probably knew no help was coming and between the choice of becoming a meal and dying slowly or killing those motherfuckers, she chose to go out with a bang. ¡°Shit, demonification.¡± ¨C I cursed. Large horns were currently already growing on her head. The thing that used to be frail merchants daughter, was tearing spiders apart left and right with her bare hands. There was no saving her now; death would only come as a release from this curse. Steeling myself, I kept running along Arnold towards the exit, her roars vibrating the air behind us. Finally, we found ourselves at the exit, with a steep cliff in front of us and a narrow path leading deeper into mountains. Not looking back, we kept running. Chapter 5 – Getting the ball rolling Interlude ¨C New duty ***Salem*** **Day 10** *Aeania* Last night was quite pleasant; I could still smell the wonderful scent of soap on my skin. I honestly don¡¯t remember last time I was not covered in travel grime or other filth. Was it before? Before they killed my... No, no sad thought now! I can grief later; I still have work to do. Jeanne had ordered enough travel supplies to last us in our hunt, and it was my job to see that we got them. Now for the supplies, hmm, whom should I ask? The city lord? No, there was no way he would have enough stored for our needs, besides that, he already had his hands full with refugees. Ugh, our supply lack wouldn¡¯t even be a problem, if not for the strange situation in our military HQ. For some reason, there were no currently available supplies left, not to mention that the whole HQ what currently in what could only be described as chaos. That left me with no other choice than to ask merchant guild for assistance. Salem was a bustling city, credits to it being a port town that had connections to the capital. This, in turn, meant that it was easy to find the biggest profiteer from this - merchant¡¯s guild. You just had to look for the busiest place around. Watching people streaming in and out like ants were mesmerising on its own. You could see wagons full of cargo everywhere being sent out to god knows where. I always had a fascination for trading. Must be the reason why I married that fool of a man, well that and his charming words that stole my heart away. I took a deep breath ¨C ¡°No time for reminiscing!¡± ¨C steeled myself, and walked towards aperson, whom I presumed was the customs officer. ¡°Hello, where could I find someone for in charge of supply lines?¡± ¡°You buying or selling?¡± ¡°Buying,¡± ¨C I answered. The busy man, without even looking up, pointed towards main guild entrance. ¡°Yeah good luck with that, you can ask at the guild registration, but I doubt anyone will be interested in selling anything right now, we just got a huge order from capital for double the prices.¡± ¡°Thanks, but I don¡¯t think that will be a problem,¡± ¨C I said and went inside. Ignoring the line before the registry and the loud curses that came, I walked up to a slender young man at the registry. ¡°I need to buy enough supplies¡­¡± Without even listening, he cut me off, - ¡°Now look here, what makes you think you can just ignore rules of this place. You need to stand in line and wait. Your needs will have to wait their turn.¡± ¨C He gave me barely passable smile and pointed at the lines end. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t need to do any of that crap. I reached and took out commanding officers badge, Jeanne had given me. ¨C ¡°By the Paladin Captain¡¯s Jeanne Fray¡¯s order, I¡¯m here to requisite supplies for the imperial army; all who stand in the way will be punished by the law. Now I suggest you run and find someone that can help me with my NEEDS and stop acting like such a brat.¡± That got him moving and at the same time, quieted the angry curses coming from behind me. There was no need for me to act this way, but something about this brat annoyed me. He just seemed too self-important and my hands itched to give him a good slap. I didn¡¯t have to wait long; soon woman clad in the most expensive attire I¡¯ve seen before, greeted me. At least, the air she carried was less of the pompous quality and more like something a person in charge should have. ¡°Hello, I¡¯ve been told you came with an imperial order?¡± Stupid boy, what dumb things had he have told her. ¡°First, can we speak in somewhere quieter? I¡¯d prefer if we could discuss things in private.¡± ¡°Oh? After all this, you wish for privacy. All right, follow me, Greg,see to the other people. Lady Knight and I, have business to discuss.¡± He bowed and left to attend the registry, while I followed Ms Moneybags inside her office. Okay, maybe I overdid it a bit, but I didn¡¯t quite regret it either. As soon as we were sitting comfortably, and servants had been sent for some refreshments, she asked ¨C ¡°To whom do I owe the pleasure? I¡¯m fairly knowledgeable when it comes to knights stationed in this city, but I believe I haven¡¯t seen you around.¡± ¡°Aeania Coniara, currently a knight under Paladin Captain Jeanne.¡± ¡°Ah, I think I have heard of you, though my Intel does mention that you should currently be in retirement, living the happy couple life with your husband.¡± ¡°Yeah, that isn¡¯t the case anymore. My marriage was short-lived.¡± ¡°I see, I think I understand. In that case, you have my sympathy. In turbulent times like these, it is hard to live a simple life. Anyway, it is a pleasure to meet Ms Aeania; I¡¯m Zaran LaCiy, currently one of the people in charge of this guild. Now, what inquiry have you come to discuss?¡± ¡°Right, well Ms Zaran, I don¡¯t know what your assistant have told you, but no I don¡¯t bear Imperial order, but I do come with military orders from Captain Jeanne. We are in need of supplies for the upcoming campaign against the invading ogre tribes. Currently, our military HQ is unable to provide us, thus we are planning on using wartime rules and buying supplies for lowest possible prices.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a shame. I was under the impression there is no current or war going on, and as far as Empire considers, there is no threat to the City of Salem either. Thus, I will need to kindly refuse your offer, as no wartime rules currently apply.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Have you not seen the number of refugees arriving every day? It¡¯s just a matter of time before ogres grow bold enough to target this city. Without adequate resources, we won¡¯t be able to protect anyone.¡± She chuckled at that ¨C ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not that I disagree whether or not there is a threat to the city, I did say that it¡¯s the Empire who does that. How will you protect anyone in this city, when you are long gone by the time monsters arrive? You talk of protection, but even now your captain plans on leaving the city to its fate.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know what you are talking about! How dare you¡­¡± ¡°Now, now Ms Lady Knight let¡¯s be civil. I¡¯m starting to think we are not on the same page here. Please take your seat and I will explain what I mean.¡± Without even realising, I had stood and shouted at her. It was well deserved though, saying that captain would abandon the people, it¡¯s the same as saying she was willing to commit treason. ¡°Watch your words, I will not sit here and listen you badmouth my Captain. Jeanne is the last person who would abandon people in need.¡± She inclined her head at that, - ¡°Are you then, not aware of the Imperial order that every Captain received a few days ago? Last, I heard, every unit under General Hendrik¡¯s command is being recalled to the Capital. Haven¡¯t your captain informed you of that?¡± ¡°What? No, I haven¡¯t met Jeanne today, but she did say that we are holding a meeting later. What do you mean recalled? What¡¯s the reason?¡± ¡°Oh my, I don¡¯t know the reasons. I don¡¯t even know about the orders, it¡¯s just that a little birdy chirped something similar to that.¡± ¡°And did those little birdies say anything about the reasons behind the orders?¡± ¨C I asked teeth gnashing, but inside I was growing more and more concerned. ¡°Well, a girl can always speculate. I might have heard the Imperial family been buying more and more supplies lately, and recalling all their troops back home, but that¡¯s all I can say about this, draw your own conclusions. Now if there is nothing more to discuss, please excuse me. I still have more work to do, even if this conversation has been entertaining enough.¡± ¡°Wait, what about supplies?¡± ¡°What about them?¡± ¨C She asked ¨C ¡°You do not expect me to provide people, who are not defending this city? You can still buy some of the current prices, but I must warn you, that they are currently quite high, what with all the refugees and attacks going on. Now excuse me.¡± With that, she departed, and I was left to ponder her words. While she didn¡¯t quite state it clearly, I could only see few things that would require such drastic measures. First, the Emperor had died and there was ongoing succession war. Second, there was big enough threat heading for capital that would require this kind of preparation. I didn¡¯t know which option I liked less. Last time we had succession wars, plenty of good men and woman died. Whole groups of people were executed, just because they were deemed dangerous to the new rule, and whole libraries that contained even the smallest hint of opposition¡¯s propaganda were burned down. It took more than twenty years for Empire to regain its glory. As for the threat, well, that spoke for itself. It¡¯s called the Holy city of Sanctorumfor a reason. Even in beast wars, nothing could shake it. Not to mention the church of Holy Fire and their paladins, who were a huge help in taking back our lands. They were the main reason war ended in our favour, and not with us losing most of our land to beastman. I need to speak with Jeanne, even if I didn¡¯t really doubt the information Ms Zaran gave me, I still needed to check on details. If they did give out the order, there should still be a way for us to leave behind a small unit for city defence. Nothing good will come out of leaving the city undefended with all the ogres roaming in forests, especially, if my worries about this being more than just a turf war for them are true. I found Jeanne in our command tent. She had a grim expression on her face, as she was arguing with a man who, I presumed, was Captain Colin of the city guard. Not wanting to interrupt, I patiently waited for them to finish. Finally, after ten more minutes Colin stormed out, looking just as grim. ¡°So what was that all about?¡± ¨C I asked as I reached her. ¡°That moron thinks it will be all well and dandy if he just packs up and leaves.¡± ¨C She answered with a sigh while rubbing her eyes. Seems like someone didn¡¯t get much sleep last night. Can¡¯t blame her, I probably would get much sleep either if I knew about this whole fiasco. ¡°So the rumours about us getting recalled are true?¡± ¡°So you already found out? Yes, it seems every captain sent to deal with ogres, have been recalled, including city guards. Still, that doesn¡¯t mean I like his attitude about any of this. If only he could sit down for a minute and discuss things with me.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t blame the guy, I¡¯m sure he has thought about this a great deal more than you think. He probably came to the conclusion that it was beyond his ability to help. Besides, it¡¯s not as if these are the old times, where every city had its own guard, independent of Empire. After Emperor Emhyr came into power, he disbanded every defence organization that didn¡¯t directly answer to him, and in their place, installed people loyal to him. At the time, it seemed like a good idea; there can¡¯t be disloyal city lords if their own guards answer directly to imperial army. Now we see the flaws in the system.¡± ¨C I shrugged at that, it¡¯s not as if we are in a better position to help. The same rules would apply to her as well. ¨C ¡°While I do want to help these people, I just can¡¯t see any wayto do so.¡± ¡°I refuse to believe that. I will work out something that will help the people.¡± ¡°Oh, by the way, I spoke with merchant guild about our supply problem, but it seems they are not going to cooperate. We could try to strong-arm them, but they do have a reasonable excuse ¨C We are leaving them, so why should they provide us. What do you think we should do Jeanne?¡± Met with silence, I looked at her in worry ¨C ¡°Jeanne, is everything alright? Hey, Captain?¡± She looked up at me with a weird expression on her face. ¡°You are officially still in retirement, right?¡± ¡°Yes, but how does that factor in anything?¡± ¡°You are the only free person here with enough power to take up charge. Think about it! Everyone in my unit has already signed up, and are here under the orders of General. You, on the other hand, while I do consider you a full-fledged knight, are still in retirement. It wouldn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t come with us to the capital, besides that, as you have previous military rank, I can still assign you a city defence position.¡± ¨C She said excitedly. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s a little far-fetched, don¡¯t you think? I mean I¡¯m all for it, but do you really think a single knight can organise defences of the whole city? Who would even listen to me? I won¡¯t have enough soldiers for that.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t be single! While it¡¯s true, I cannot send any knight on duty to help you. I can still ask the injured ones who are staying behind. I cannot give you rank without General allowing for it and thus placing you under the same orders as I am, but I can still make you in charge of them, by assigning you a temporary position.¡± ¡°Okay, but that leaves me with what? About 50 injured knights and soldiers, defending a city of 2000 people. I could try to make this work, but I would need enough money to buy mercenaries and that would require either funding from the army or the cooperation of the merchant¡¯s guild. Granted, the guild¡¯s head seemed like a smart woman, but I doubt it would be that easy.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s settled,¡± ¨C she said happily clapping hands and not listening to me complain, - ¡°I¡¯m sorry to ask you this, but there is no one else I could trust this with. I know no one better than you, who can get impossibly difficult things done when needed, well except Kingsley, but he¡¯s coming with me, our unit will leave before the day ends. We are going to take transport ships directly to Capital. I will try smooth things out with merchant¡¯s guild in the meantime and will talk to the rest of knights who will be under your command. I¡¯m counting on you, to protect as many people as possible; I will try to return as soon as I can.¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°So I¡¯m the second best choice we have in this situation? Well, if you put it that way, how could I refuse?¡± ¨C I sighed; this is going to be a pain in my backside. End of interlude ***Somewhere in mountains*** **Day 10** *Trey* Well, I was bloody lost again. ¡°Whoever thought up the saying that two heads are better than one probably didn¡¯t realise, all that only applies when both heads are not full of shit. How is it that with two of us, we are still running blindly. We presumably have a master fucking magician with us, and he is just as useful as a log.¡± ¡°Okay, that¡¯s a bit harsh don¡¯t you think? We are only a little lost.¡± ¨C Answered Arnold, who still carried Khanos with him, though this time because our big magician had lost conscience, ¨C ¡°We can still find a way, after the sun comes out, besides, you can hardly blame the guy for passing out after that fire show.¡± ¡°I guess I¡¯m just a little bit jumpy after, you know, having to leave someone behind to die!¡± I winced just as soon the words left my mouth. I¡¯ve done it again, damn; I should watch what I¡¯m saying. ¡°Ugh¡­ I¡¯m sorry; I didn¡¯t mean that I know you are not at fault. No, none of this is our fault, we did what we should have, and she would have done the same in our place. It¡¯s just frustrating to be so close, and yet so helpless at the same time.¡± I turned and kicked a rock, trying to let out my frustration that way, only to receive plenty of pain in response. While I was thinking about ways to destroy that fucking rock, I felt ward hand on my shoulder. ¡°Kid, it¡¯s okay, don¡¯t pretend to be tough in situations like this. Only a monster would feel no remorse, it¡¯s okay to cry a little bit if you need to. I won¡¯t even tell Khanos about it, so let it all out.¡± ¡°Thanks, I¡­ do feel frustrated, but we don¡¯t have time right now for my feelings. Let¡¯s just keep going. After that, we walked in a bit more comfortable quiet. At least as comfortable, you can get in monster-infested mountains. ¡°Still, with all this mist, I don¡¯t know about the sun coming out anytime soon. Besides that, I don¡¯t know how long it will take until the next time we run into something that wants a piece of us. Our main damage dealer is currently having a nap, and you already saw just how ¡®amazing¡¯ I am with bladed, or for that matter, any kind of weapons.¡± ¨C I said breaking the silence. ¡°True to that, I have no idea if we are even heading the right direction. However, if I remember correctly, I think I saw that rock half an hour ago. At first, I wasn¡¯t sure, but now that I look closer, it¡¯s the same you tried to break your foot on.¡± ¡°Damn, you are right, it¡¯s the same place. Means we are heading in circles. Well, at least now we know we are not in any immediate danger from any more of our spider friends.¡± ¡°Oh? Why¡¯s that?¡± ¡°If we haven¡¯t gotten anywhere since the last time we were attacked, and there¡¯s still no follow up on that, could mean, they didn¡¯t send more after us. Besides that, I can¡¯t imagine our girl letting them get away scot-free after what they did to her. They must have bigger problems on their hands.¡± That¡¯s right; I had to kill more giant spiders on our way here. While the nest was mostly distracted by the rampaging demon, some still chased us. Khanos dealt with most of them and then passed out from exhaustion. That left Arnold and me facing three hairy buggers. We split them fairly, he got to deal with two and I got one. I call fair, as he was twice my size, besides it¡¯s not like I wouldn¡¯t help him after I dealt with my foe. As always, I went with the most effective fighting strategy and just swung my sword wildly in general direction of the spider, until it stopped moving. Turning to help Arnold, I was met with pretty incredible sight. Safe to say, I¡¯ve misjudged my giant friend. He might not be a warrior, but he knew how to swing an axe. One of the spiders was already down; while the other was probably contemplating his life choices, as two of its front legs were already missing. I planted my sword right where its bottom side should be, and that got quite funny reactions out of it, until of course, Arnold ended spider¡¯s miserable existence, by nailing the spider to the ground with his battle-axe. From that point onward, we have just been trying to distance ourselves from the main nest, hoping we won¡¯t see any of those hairy bastards again. Ending my moment of remembrance, Arnold asked ¨C ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be fine just camping here until Khanos wakes up? If you don¡¯t think any more will follow, we might be better off having someone who knows where we are.¡± ¡°You really think he has a way to navigate in this mist?¡± ¡°No, but I could use some rest. I might look like carved from stone, but I still had to carry this fellow all the way, while simultaneously fighting off giant spiders. You don¡¯t look that good either, so I think a rest will do just fine.¡± ¡°I¡­ okay, you are right. Let¡¯s camp here for now.¡± At first, I hadn¡¯t noticed how much everything hurt. I think my body just decided it was too tired of feeling pain and shut off that sense. Maybe, it was all the stress or shock. Well, point is, now it did remember and after I sat down, I couldn¡¯t even imagine standing up anytime soon. Still, my fantasies of good rest will have to wait, as unbeknown to us, we had been surrounded by ogres. Neither Arnold or I saw them coming. At one point, I just looked up from untying my shoes, to let my feet rest, and there they were - three ogres holding swords and axes. ¡°Halt, humans!¡± You know what? Fuck it! I had enough of this bullshit! ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¨C I groaned, - ¡°Just leave us the fuck alone, why is it that after I finally get some rest, another thing just pops up, every single fucking time, without missing a beat. Either it¡¯s the bandits that tried to rob me, or the ogres, that burned down Bristol, or some fucking mage that attacks me for no reason, or better yet a whole bunch of giant fucking spiders that want a piece of me, and now this!¡± Point to ogres being fierce warriors, they only looked a little taken aback by my sudden outburst. In the meantime, Arnold was looking at me, as if I was some kind of crazy idiot while holding his battle-axe ready, in case the ogres would attack, just because I screamed at them. Well maybe I really was a crazy idiot, but that¡¯s beside the point, and I blame my recent adventures on that. The silence that followed was somewhat unnerving and I was starting to regret my little outburst. Finally, the ogre on my left spoke: ¡°We mean you no harm, come, our Warchief will want to talk with you.¡± ¡°Why should we follow you?¡± ¨C Arnold asked. ¡°You can always stay, but spiders only stopped coming because we been killing all of the ones following you. If we leave, you will have to fight them yourselves. Consider this our show of goodwill and decide after that.¡± Figures, it would explain why they stopped after we killed three of them when there were thousands more roaming the mountains. I looked at Arnold and he just shrugged back at me. So, the decision was up to me? My decisions had never led me somewhere good, but for one these ogres didn¡¯t quite seem keen on eating or killing us, and I doubted we could resist if that was the case; besides, I spotted more of them around us, I didn¡¯t see Arnold or me, breaking through that many, considering even one of them was too many. ¡°Alright, we will come; just don¡¯t expect me to leave my sword behind.¡± At that, the ogres chuckled and looked like I told them the funniest joke ever. ¡°Yes, yes human. Keep your little toothpick. Now come, Warchief is waiting.¡± Interlude ¨C You training starts here ***Forests southwest of Salem*** **Day 10-13** *Saruk* ¡°Your turn to try,¡± ¨C Urmaram said, handing me spear. I took it and carefully balanced it in my hand. Next, I slowly climbed the nearby tree, crouching and lowering my centre of gravity, I walked on the slender branch, searching for my prey. Not seeing anything yet, I kept on moving, agilely climbing on to the next tree. Still nothing, but I knew it was somewhere close; Urmaram had assured me of that. No idea how he knew where the wispfox was hiding, but I trusted him. Finally, I heard the quiet buzzing sound that came from it. Freezing, I tried to find its source. There, upon the next tree, besides one of those glowing mushrooms. It was currently nibbling on the mushroom, looking quite smug. Well, I¡¯ll show it this time. Raising the spear, I slowly drew back my hand, and then in one fast swoop, threw my spear at it. I heard squeak as my spear hit, still, I didn¡¯t have time to celebrate as the branch I was currently on, gave away and broke under the stress of my weight. Spitting mud out of my mouth, I stood up, just to hear laughter ring from my spectators. ¡°Ha! Laugh all you want, but I at least hit it, while you both fell off, before even getting to it.¡± My grin disappeared when Urmaram, still laughing said: ¡°Yeah, about that. You didn¡¯t actually hit it. Look again.¡± I took a careful look at where my spear had hit and found it stuck in the middle of mushroom. ¡°You need to watch more carefully, it¡¯s not called wispfox just because of its speed. The position you saw it in, was actually an illusion created by it. You need to look for small spots of blurry air, to know its actual location.¡± ¡°Bahh¡­ I¡¯ll get it next time! Whose turn is it now? Cramak?¡± ¡°No I was last, now it¡¯s Thaton¡¯s turn to try.¡± ¡°Unfortunately it seems, our little friend has grown tired of us chasing after it and has decided to leave,¡± ¨C said Urmaram. ¡°Uncle, can you show us how it¡¯s done?¡± ¨C asked Thaton. ¡°Hmm, sure.¡± He took the spear from me and in a flash was gone inside the labyrinth of trees. Ten seconds later, he was already back, with small wispfox in his hand. It was still alive, moving about and trying to get away, but unfortunately, for it, I don¡¯t think anything could get away from Urmaram if he didn¡¯t allow it. Now, without the illusions, I could see why they call it wispfox. While it was the size of a normal squirrel, it looked like a miniature glowing fox, another case of ambient mana changing wildlife around it. ¡°Are we going to eat that?¡± ¨C asked Cramak. ¡°What? No, of course not, wispfoxes are forest protectors and I only allowed you to train on them, because I knew that with your skills, you would never actually hurt them, besides, they do enjoy playing games with people, even though this one got bored of you.¡± ¡°All right, that¡¯s enough for this little fellow,¡± ¨C he said while letting it go ¨C ¡°we will soon cross the Red Run, and while I don¡¯t expect running into any merchant ships. We should still be wary. That being said, this doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m allowing you to slack off. You will still train on your journey, this time Cramak¡¯s going to hide, and you are going to look for him. If he manages to reach me before any of you touch him, he wins, if you touch him, you win. If I don¡¯t get either of the results before the river, you all lose. Same rules - losers are going to hunt for breakfast and run 100 laps around the next camp we make.¡± Cramak was the best of us when it came to sneaking around. Thus, it didn¡¯t quite come as a surprise that Thaton and I lost. We almost managed to reach him, but he had distracted us by tossing a rock in opposite direction, and while I went to look at the noise, leaving Thaton to watch my back, he managed to rush for the finish. Thaton did hit him with a rock he tossed, but while that would have worked if it was throwing a dagger and this was a real fight, rules are rules, and they did state that we had to touch him and not just throw stuff at him. Still, him having a new bruise, made our loss more bearable. For an ogre 100 laps are nothing, unfortunately, that was not our only training session that day. Final results were 1500 for Thaton, 1400 for me and 1000 for Cramak. So that meant we were going to spend most of our rest, running around. Not something horribly interesting for an ogre, I would rather go hunting at night than run around. Soon we reached and crossed the Red Run, and while my adventuring spirit screamed for something interesting to happen, nothing did. Later that night, we were all tired from running, but that didn¡¯t stop Urmaram, who insisted now was the best time for us to hold sparring session. According to him, a warrior must always be in top form while in battle, even if your body says otherwise, you should break your limits by sheer will. We all obviously agreed to that, even though our bodies didn¡¯t, so I guess at least we got that part right. This became our everyday routine; plenty of challenges followed by punishment for those who didn¡¯t succeed. I was almost glad when the first sight of Death Sea greeted us, meant it was not that far from Southern tribes. Still, it did mean we had a day¡¯s worth of journey in which we had to move in hot sandy climate. Fortunately, Urmaram didn¡¯t insist we keep on going with our training, and just told us to watch our steps, as you might never know what lurks under the sand. After being on edge after that little warning for half a day, waiting for some kind of mystical land worm the size of a house, to come and try to eat us, we could finally relax when we found few giant rocks we could use while having lunch. ¡°So boys, don¡¯t you think you are little overdoing it? When I said watch your step, I meant don¡¯t randomly step on every snake or scorpion you see.¡± ¡°But what about the giant sandworms?¡± ¨C I asked. ¡°What giant sandworms?¡± ¨C He looked puzzled at me, ¨C ¡°Boy, you¡¯ve heard too many of the stories our hunters bring back. You should know they tend to over exaggerate things, and most of those stories are only meant to scare little children from going out on their own. Granted, there have been historical records of beasts like that, but not in this desert. Those stories are more legends, rather than a daily threat.¡± ¡°Yeah, you are an adult now and you still believe in children¡¯s stories?¡± ¨C ¡®helpfully¡¯ inserted Thaton. My face turning red I snarled at him: ¡°Shut up, you were looking around, just as scared. Don¡¯t you deny it now.¡± ¡°Heh, if you both still have energy left. I guess we can use this time to spar. Go ahead, Cramak, youjointhem.¡± It was late at night when we finally reached the first Southern tribe ogre outpost. At first, they greeted us with suspiciousness, but after introductions, it seems that some of them recognized Urmaram. After that, everything went smoothly, and we were lead to the tent that I was currently residing in. Urmaram went to discuss things with Southern tribe Warchief, while the three of us didn¡¯t really have anything to do. As such, Thaton suggested we explore the tribe, and we were all too ready to agree. It would be awesome to see, how different was this tribes hunting and fighting styles. Besides that, they might even have a celebration planned. I still remember the nice feeling of dancing with girls, not to mention my dry mouth and empty stomach that just screamed for some tasty drinks and food. We decided to split up and meet up later, each going to adifferent side of camp. I took the western side, as I heard they had a lake there and with all this sand going in places it wasn¡¯t supposed to, I was ready for some quick dip. On my way I was met welcoming smiles and greetings, apparently, they didn¡¯t have that many visitors, probably because they lived in the middle of the desert, so it was a quite nice change for them. Some of the local girls even offered me food and I got to spar with their young adults. I have to say, where our tribe uses speed and stealth, they practised more strength and stamina approach, or as they called ¨C ¡®The true ogre way of combat¡¯. I didn¡¯t let that get to me, as what¡¯s true for them might not necessarily true for us. While they lived in clear sandy fields near a lake, we came from mountain terrain that was covered in trees and had plenty of possible ambush positions. Thankfully, our little training sessions came handy, and after my opponent and I tied six ¨C six we ended by agreeing on each one combat style having their own advantages. It was almost dawn when I finally reached the lake, and I was looking forward to enjoying some cool water. Unfortunately, water was quite warm, and for some reason salty. Definitely not great for drinking, though the closer I got to where the river flows into the lake, the less salty it got. Huh¡­ this trip was kind of fun. I did expect to have more adventures along the way, but as my father said: ¡°If you go looking for trouble, be careful that trouble doesn¡¯t find you first and catch you unprepared.¡± As sayings go, it wasn¡¯t the greatest, but I still remember it to this day, though most likely because it came with my ass being beaten, and not because it was creed I lived by. After swimming for additional half an hour, I was finally ready to have some rest in my tent. It was unlikely I would get any, but even hour of sleep would help. Ah, that¡¯s right, I forgot to meet up with the guys, I hope they aren¡¯t too worried, better be fast then. As I returned to the shore, I saw a group of ogres leading prisoners with bags over their heads; they looked like humans from afar, but I couldn¡¯t be quite sure. Climbing up the shore, I greeted them, but was met with angry glares. ¡°All right, it seems, you guys are in a bad mood. Don¡¯t mind me; I¡¯ll just leave you alone.¡± ¨C I said, shrugging and walking away. ¡°Help, these beasts are hol¡­¡± The voice was cut short, as one of the guards punched prisoner who had tried to speak in the stomach. ¡°Move along youngling, nothing to see here. Just some murderers we caught. They tried to kill some of our children in the dark of night. Until we discover who was behind the attack, they will be left alive and tortured.¡± ¡°Lies, you bea¡­¡± ¨C another one tried to shout but was cut short by another punch to the gut. ¡°Alright, it seems you have it covered,¡± ¨C I said as I walked away. Trip back was less eventful, as all the nightlife had already died down. There were only some guards, walking around. Strange how different our cultures were, even though we were the same race. We didn¡¯t have guards inside the village. We only have them guarding the outside, as it was beyond our honour rules to steal or hurt children. These were the rules we didn¡¯t need to enforce by a constant guard. Everyone knew that breaking those, lead to banishment and lifelong shame on their names. We only ever worried about the outside threats, and up until now, it had worked out just fine. Ten minutes later, I met up with my little group in our tent. We were just about to share our experiences when Urmaram, who looked more than distressed, walked in. ¡°We need to leave now. Get your stuff and come with me.¡± End of interlude Watcher notes part 1 Sentient beings/people: .)Colourful orb - Might be God, might be a figment of my imagination. Might as well be the emperor of slug people for all I know. .)Trey/Me - I''m me, ''Nuff said. Seriously, there is nothing to tell, other than the fact that for some reason I''m immortal. See? I''m just an everyday normal guy. .)Steve DeGrieve - Some dude who wrote the magic book my parents had. I don¡¯t know, never met him, and never heard of him otherwise. .)Khanos ¨C Some dude who''s a master mage. How should I know about him? If you recall I was dead at the time of our meeting, killed by him. .)Jeanne ¨C Some kind of paladin lady, better stay away, don¡¯t want anything to do with the church. .)Aeania ¨C Some daemon lady with an Axe. .)Kingsley ¨C Swordsmanship mentor and master tactician for Jeanne. Why keep asking me these things? I just read from the picture cards descriptions. I haven¡¯t even met the guy. What do you want from me? Races: .)Humans - Pretty much self-explanatory. They are the majority of a race from where I come from. As always there are some that think themselves above other races because of this, but it''s not like racism is that common with only humans. Everyone''s a little bit racist inside anyway, it¡¯s just how well you can hide it. Though I like to think I''m over such a little things as judging someone by their race, making jokes "As smelly as anogre" is still something I do from time to time. As I grew up in a location that shares space with humans and daemons whom you interact with every day, it quickly tends to fix your prejudices against them. .)Demons - Basically evil beings, not much to go by as a description, as they tend to differ greatly, but at least most of them have horns. Most demons are just animals possessed by evil beings, while some are Daemons that have lost their minds or ways. Demonization induces faster horn growth and animalistic/grotesque deformations that are easy to distinguish, this transformation is irreversible. Thankfully, this does not happen that often and in all cases is because daemon wanted to gain power that came with the transformation, as the mind loss only comes after approximately 3 days of transformation. Most daemons turned demon, chose to go die in the wilderness or by knights hand so that they don''t hurt their loved ones. All demons, both turned daemons and beast types can awaken intelligence after gaining enough power, though this is a really rare occurrence. Nothing of the old personality remains behind and the being born is one of pure evil. No need to say that after that 99.99% of them still remain deeply on the "We will first torture you and then kill you" list. I say 99.99%, but honestly I have never heard of that 0.01%, nevertheless, it''s always nice to be optimistically at times where there is nothing to be optimistic about. .)Daemons - Not to be mistaken with demons, as that would just be rude and you don''t want to be rude when 30% of our village and closest town population are daemons. Daemons do not share common ancestry with demons, the only reason they can become one if given enough stimulation is that they are more closely tuned to the spirit world. Given enough reason, they might take up a contract with an evil spirit, but as that¡¯s practically a death sentence, rarely anyone chose to do so. In most cases their personalities are quite a bit similar to humans, well maybe a bit more leaning on violent side (just a bit), but that is probably because they have been pushed around a bit more than the rest of society. You know, because they look different and may turn into a demon if you push them too far and stupid people find it hard to adapt to different things. In past, I knew a daemon called Miez T''raodri, was a nice guy. That is until someone killed his wife then proceeded to rape and kill his daughters. Chose to turn into a demon for revenge. Guy got scary real fast. Let¡¯s just say the bandits didn''t leave full corpses. I don''t blame the guy though, was some seriously fucked up shit, I probably would choose the same. .)Ogres - The most cultured and gentle beings around the planet. People are used to saying that ogres are the kindest and helpful beings around. Yeah right... Most live in tribes, go to war, and kill. While this may be true for some other races too, someone just ramped-up the ogre violence setting when creating them a bit more than for the other races. Besides that, they basically eat everything they kill, that includes humans and other sentient races. It''s not easy to hold a conversation when the other party is constantly thinking if you would taste better if they cooked you first and added salt and pepper, or just plain raw. They are responsible for most non-monster related problems. While they may be scary and violent. They are still not considered monsters, as they are sapient and can be reasoned with, well... provided you are in the power position during the conversation and have not pissed them over by breaking one of their many tribal rules. As one of the sentient races they are provided with Star council¡¯s seat, but they mostly chose to ignore council meetings, unless, it¡¯s something considering their race or going to war. .)Beastman ¨C People with bestial traits. Don¡¯t ever joke about if their ancestors fucked a beast to become like this. I learned this the hard way, lost a tooth and couldn¡¯t walk for a week. Fuckers can¡¯t even take a joke. Truth be told, that was me being an edgy teen asshole, we all had those dark periods in life. Thankfully, a few good beatings after I said the wrong things to the wrong people, have made me a better person, and I''ve met some great beastman fellows since then. They are not that bad, especially when you don¡¯t start your conversations by insulting them. Ahh almost forgot - don¡¯t pull on their tails, even if it¡¯s a cute girl, that¡¯s a black eye just waiting to happen. Geography: Planet/world - Achyria. I don''t know much about it, even though I was basically forced to watch as it was created and grew. That still leaves me with nothing more than an impression. If you had the chance to look at your planet being created and all the history happening until then in from of your eyes, all that timespan compressed in 3 days¡¯ time, how much of itwould you understand without being given any context before? Well, it''s pretty big for one, I guess. Has 3 continents. It''s cold in North, warmer near the middle, with deserts at the middle part being commonplace, and cold in the south (As far as I could tell by all the snow I saw on both of planets poles). .)Continents: *Central continent ¨C This is where the action currently takes place. .)Empires: *Great Kundun Empire ¨C Empire where I live in. The remote village I come from didn¡¯t really interact with any royalty of the empire so I have no idea about the political structure of it. Honestly, I don¡¯t even want to know, seems like a drag. *Great Beast lands ¨C Don¡¯t let the name fool you. This is a full-fledged empire, run by a warrior race of ohhh¡­ you guessed it, Beastman. .)Cities: *Sanctorum¨C Holy city, where the church of Holy Fire headquarters lies. Probably, the worst place for me to be right now. .)Towns: *Bristol - Town from which I was riding at the beginning of my journey, in order to reach my home village, now a smoking ruin. .)Villages: *Home village also known as Greenville - This is where I live. Nothing much to say about it, it''s just a combination of about 25 wooden houses inside a wooden fence, though the count varies greatly as storms tend to take some of them down. All-in-all boring and dirty place, where having a good work ethic is emphasized and being fun shunned. Now I just hope it¡¯s still intact. .)Rivers: Alsa ¨C the river that divides us from the wilderness. Not that spectacular of a river. It doesn¡¯t even stand close to Central continents largest river Aranka. Aranka ¨C Central continents largest river. It flows through half of the continent from the Misty Mountains to south sea. .)Mountains: Misty Mountains ¨C Covers west part of the continent. Unexplored, large, scary, covered in all kinds of beasts. That¡¯s enough for me to know that I don¡¯t want to go there. Beasts/animals: .)Brahham - Commonly used as a steed, animal for hard field work, food source. Not really known for being smart animals. All the smart animals ether fear or eat humans, while Brahhams only need a bit of a food and shelter as a reward and they are already ready to basically slave away for us, though I have seen humans do the same for as little as that. Weigh about 2 tons, but its speed can reach about 80 km/h. You might ask, why I know so much about them. Well as I kid I used to read books my parents had. Unfortunately, they had about 2 of them and one of those were common animals and beasts of Kundun. You would not believe how many times you can re-read the same book when you only have 2.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. *Donny - My steed, for now...One day I will ride dragons and drink vine with the Gods, mark my words! Jokes aside, he is not known as one of the smartest individuals of his species, there is absolutely nothing special about him otherwise. If anyone wonders why an animal would promptly decide to sleep just because he can¡¯t see, then blame brahham raising techniques. It¡¯s common practice to cover their heads with sacks so they don¡¯t wander off at night. .)Trolls ¨C From the useless domestic beasts and animals (please don¡¯t mistake my usage of beasts as in beast people. Nobody ever calls them beasts. In addition, the Great Beast lands are something people just started to call their empire. I think it was meant more like an insult because Kundun Empire has suffered numerous losses to them over the last 100 or so years. I¡¯m not sure what they call it themselves. Anyway, if you really want to call a Beastman beast, just be prepared to back up that claim with power; else get smacked around by them.) Soo... Where were we? Ahh yes - from the dumb brahhams we arrive at one of the world¡¯s deadliest predators. Trolls are known for their lack of manners around the dinner table. Well that, and smashing everything that comes inside their territory to tiny little pieces. If you ever want to kill a troll (God knows why you would want to do that totally insane thing) beware of their high regenerative powers. Medium sized cuts stop bleeding seconds after they are made and small cuts heal almost instantly. This means you need to use magic, preferably fire magic, or if you are good enough, scratch that, I mean insane enough, you can use huge2-handed swords and aim for the throat or eyes. Honestly, last time group of adventuring swordsman went to kill a troll, 17 of them died, and the 3 that managed to escape, refused to talk about the experience. To this day, it has been known as one of the biggest blunders an adventurer partyhas ever made. .)Wabbits ¨C Next on our list is the mighty wabbit! This evil incarnate feasts upon woman and children alike. Every day we lose half our population to the menace th¡­ Okay, I can¡¯t keep going on with a straight face. Wabbits are what happens when you breed wolves with rabbits using mana as a catalyst. The original intention was to create something similar to war-dogs with amazing jumping abilities, to hone in on enemies faster and to decrease meat consumption by adding grass to their diet. The final product, however, was a failure on all fronts. Not only did it make it hard for them to consume meat and grass, so they had to rely on specific forest berries for sustenance, it also made them lose any grace of wolf speed and rabbits leap. While their inborn instincts still make them hunt other animals for food. It almost always ends with them misjudging their physical abilities and landing face first in trees. It¡¯s a wonder they managed to not go extinct by now, but the combination of fast breeding rate of rabbits and some researcher who felt sorry for them and introduced special berries as food in local forests, they somehow held on. While the meat is not particularly tasty, people still hunt them for it. .)Wispfox ¨C Man1: ¡°It¡¯s a wisp!¡± Man2: ¡°No, it¡¯s a fox!¡± Scholar: ¡°It¡¯s wispfox!¡± Man1: ¡°What¡¯s a wispfox?¡± Scholar: ¡°Who cares? At least it¡¯s not trying to eat us like everything else in this bloody forest.¡± As a resulting combination of two cunning beings, we get a fox that doesn¡¯t need food or sleep and has gained the ability to use illusion magic, thus wispfoxes have no real natural predators. Little is known of their lifestyle and reproduction though they are called forest guardians and trickster spirits. Nobody can say for sure if they are really guarding anything, but they do like playing tricks on people. Thankfully, those are mostly innocent and almost never end in death or injury. There are few guesses as to why they are so playful; most common one is that because of the loss of need of sustenance, their lives are so boring that they search for entertainment in games and tricks. Another one stems from the fact that both creatures individually are famed for their cunning and tricking so, the combination of two started to define their lifestyle and took over their basic instincts. Various items: .)Crystals/gems - while uses vary greatly with the skill of mage who uses it. In general crystals and gems can contain magic inside them. It¡¯s like a magic storage item. Novice mages can add triggers to them essentially making a spell with a switch or in my case it might as well been a bloody magic mine. *Quartz crystal - Most commonly used magic storage device and cheapest. Various terms: .)Mage - A powerful individual that can draw from the world¡¯s mana, to bind its power to his will, and create feats not possible through conventional means. Technically everyone¡¯s a mage, at least a sleeping one. More practically, to become a mage one needs to go through what is called awakening. Nobody really knows how to induce a state of awakening with 100% surety, but many agree that experiencing life and death situations or by meditating, one is more likely to awaken. Even then, only 1 out of 1000 people become an awakened mage and even less of that go further to become novice mages. Mostly because they don''t even know they have awakened. Not all people after seeing visions think they have awakened, most just think they had drunk too much, got drugged, dreamed the whole thing or received a sign from God. An awakened person only differs from a mage with having the potential to draw in mana, having potential and actually doing it is not the same. In some strange cases, mostly the ones in life and death situations, a person can not only awaken but even cast his first magic spell. This usually shows what type of magic specialization one is most suited for. For example, casting a fireball to kill your enemy in a desperate situation, might lead to you either being suited to specialize in casting fireballs (duh¡­) more open path of fire element or the broadest path of destruction magic. While casting spells like healing may lead to specialization of healing mage, white mage or support mage. That asshole who cast flash on the crystal ether belonging to a white / fire/ support/destruction school of magic. In this case, I can''t really be sure. There are too many possible combinations, to have a blind guess how the spell in crystal worked. It might be one of those as the most likely scenario or he could be water mage that focused light by forming ice for all I know. Though in that case, he was at least apprentice mage for sure. As doing that with water is much harder than just unleashing light as a white mage. As you can tell, you can do the same things in many different ways, each having their pros and cons. Drawing upon mana and practising spells can increase your mana pool and make you better at controlling mana (this leads to you wasting less of it while making a spell), thus letting you cast more spells before getting tired of mana lack. Being novice/apprentice/etc. is more of a mage guilds guideline at how strong a mage is. As the test for next level checks how large is your mana pool and how complex spells you may cast. Though again, in the end, while you can check mana pool capacity pretty well, checking spell control and spell complexity is harder and is mostly done with larger margins for error. If one mage professor says your firestorm is complex and you have good control over it and another says, that this is the worst spell control and complexity he has seen, who''s to say where the truth lies. In the end, all that matters are the results you can produce in real life and death situations, and it¡¯s not unheard of that an apprentice takes down adept. In the end, you can follow these guidelines - If you can instead of simple flame cast a giant fireball you are probably an apprentice. If you can produce grand fire spell of pyroblast you are probably master magician, and If the sky is covered in falling fireblasts, with firestorm raging all around, you might be an archmage or you might have sacrificed your soul to an evil spirit for a chance to do some serious damage to your enemies after which you will proceed to die in orderly manner as your soul gets consumed. *Mage class: *List of magic user classifications: There are 3 kinds of mage, those that tend to a role they feel suit them most, those that tend to use a single element and those that specialize in a single thing and then pushes that single thing to a perfection. The commonly preferred way is to chase the middle path of elemental magic as the 2 big spell utility paths are too diverse and can lead you to become master of nothing and novice of everything. While the specialized path may leave you with too many openings. So sure you can master all the elements and become legendary avatar of nature (granted you get to live for few tens of thousands of years to fulfil that) or you can specialize in healing and get killed because you have nothing to protect you, or you can do as most of the mages have done, and go for a single element that you feel is the most compatible with you. That should cover most of your bases and is the safest road. Destruction magic is for people who hate having unbroken things lying about. They usually pick the most powerful combinations of spells, such as fire plus lightening with a bit of earth. Fire for direct targets, lightning from sky and earth from underneath your foes. Support magic includes all healing spells, buffs, shield and other things that don¡¯t blow your enemy straight apart. For some reason, support mages tend to be less aggressive that destruction mages. We will never know why (sarcasm ensues). Every element can be used under any magic style choice. It''s just that it¡¯s easier to set people on fire than to cast protective fire shield that doesn''t simultaneously cook your ally alive inside it. That¡¯s why some elements are more suited for different styles of magic. White magic for healing, earth for defence, fire for pyromaniacs, etc. =Fire =Water =Earth =Wind =Lightning =Wood =White =Dark .)Mana - In simple terms it¡¯s a source of all magical power. Though for all the mages know about its origins, it might as well be Gods smelly body odour that flows around the planet. The only thing mages have discovered about it - it''s almost everywhere, some places more than others, and that it is necessary for magic (duhh. you could have figured that out yourself). Most magic creatures need mana to stay "magic" (another duhh.) Well, I guess as long as it works I¡¯m not complaining, who needs to know what godly armpit it crawled out from. You don''t need to know what¡¯s in the air for you to be able to breathe, you do it anyway, same as mana, and while some people definitely want to know, nobody has any concrete evidence to its origins. Oh, and using it gets people tired, as you start lacking mana in your body after emptying your mana pool. My guess that it''s the Gods way of balancing things out, so people don''t just go around shooting fireballs left and right. Monster/creature/animal representations: 1. Brahham 2.Wispfox 3.Wabbit Map of Central continent For those of you who wonder if an author, who goes away for a year with no warning, is worth checking upon - no, probably not. Honestly, I was just a lazy bastard. One day I decided to skip writing because of laziness and that day kept on expanding and a year later here we are. That being said, I did have a year where I constantly on weekly basis randomly started to think about writing again and, more importantly, about where the plot should go. Before this, I was just pulling stuff out of my ass at the moment of writing. Now, at least, I have a general idea of what will constitute as decent direction story wise. Still, I won''t give any ETA until next chapter, but at least I''m trying to keep writing. The hardest part of actually opening MCWord and starting to write is over. Now I only need to keep doing this daily.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. P.S. I''m honestly considering replacing my alarm''s ringtone with Shia LaBeouf "Just Do It" Motivational Speech. P.P.S I got a new spell checker for my works cause MCword one tends to fail me. So now I have "Grammarly". I swear I corrected and double checked every one of my chapters, at least, 8 times before publishing. Grammarly found on average 70 mistakes when I ran it through the already published text 12 months later. Never before grammar has made me want to cry so badly. I hope it won''t happen again. P.P.P.S. I revised the chapters and re-wrote some of the worst dialogues. Fighting scene still sucks, I''ll get to that after I release chapter 6.