《Invictus: Memoirs of an otherworlder on a mission》


 0.Prologue

    Invictus:Memoirs of a otherworlder


    on a mission


    Invictus


    Out of the night that covers me,


    Black as the pit from pole to pole,


    I thank whatever gods may be


    For my unconquerable soul.


    In the fell clutch of circumstance


    I have not winced nor cried aloud.


    Under the bludgeonings of chance


    My head is bloody, but unbowed.


    Beyond this place of wrath and tears


    Looms but the Horror of the shade,


    And yet the menace of the years


    Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.


    It matters not how strait the gait,


    How charged with punishments the scroll,


    I am the master of my fate:


    I am the captain of my soul.


    -William Ernest Henley


    Prologue


    The fortunate or unfortunate story of a youth called Erik Hartmann, my story, whatever your opinion may be after reading this, started when I was 18 after a series of events which made me feel like someone really wanted me dead that day, which would actually turn out to be true when I met the condescending bastard who wanted to play with my life.


    I  saved a child from a runaway truck in the morning almost getting myself runover, later in the afternoon I was going to the mall and while passing by a construction site  when dozens of steel beams fell all around me, mere centimeters from my face scaring the living shit out of me. I decided that was enough excitement for the day and went home.


    At home my favourite way to kill time was to play videogames and reading light novels.I wish I read some xianxias before my death.Life would have been much easier.


    My favourite game was a Grand Strategy-RTS-style game.I was a history buff and admired those historical figures who accomplished great feats, not necessarily good feats but great.


    At midnight I went to sleep and unbeknownst to me there was a small meteor with my name on it.


    BOOOM!


    You get the picture, right? It was a fiery death but pretty much nobody cared besides me. It was as if


    that day I was a certain red-shirt.Unfortunately my enemy wasn''t a stormtrooper, otherwise I would have survived.


    The darkness engulfed me.


    When I regained my consciousness I was surrounded by darkness.It was neither hot nor cold.


    Just an absence of everything.Somehow I immediately knew I was dead.


    ?Hmm, is this how death feels?¡°


    ?This feels really weird since I can''t move or do anything.¡°


    ?Am I going to have to have spend the eternity in this place?Aren''t there any lights around here?¡°


    ?Hello? Is anyone here?Where are the damn lights, I can''t see anything?!¡°


    I was unusually calm for a person who  recently figured out he is dead.Maybe it''s this spaces fault?


    I couldn''t muster any feelings or anything noticeable.I was completely indifferent.


    Then, a change happened.


    There was a flash of bright white light.


    After I finally managed to open my eyes, I almost died again.


    I was in the middle of a battlefield full bits and pieces of corpses and ocasionally nearly intact ones.


    If I could have thrown up, I would have but still somehow a trace off indifference would have shown on my expression, If I had any. That state of being was the weirdest time in my lives.


    A sound was heard behind me.


    ?Ahem.¡°


    I turned around so  fast, that if I had neck, it would have broken.


    I got another shock instantly.


    I rubbed my nonexistent eyes to confirm what was in front of me, was not a hallucination.


    There was a at least 3 meter tall man in full bronze armor with a bronze helmet and giant bronze hoe sitting on top of a small mountain of corpses like it was somekind of throne or something.


    A hoe?Who brings a hoe  to a battlefield?At that time it didn''t feel strange at all to me that the first thing I was nitpicking on was him bringing a hoe here.


    ?Who... WHO ARE YOU?!?!?¡° Yep, after that I started freaking the fuck out.It was something instinctual,like when a prey meets a predator.Before I could open my mouth again, the man spoke.


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    ?Welcome to my humble abode mortal.Kekeke, I hadn''t had the time to clean up you see, I was playing with army but since you have finally come we can finally start.


    "As for who I am, I go by many names like Ares, Mars and many more, but the most important thing  is that I am the god of war and farmers¡°.


    Oh, so that''s why he has a hoe.NO!Erik, focus on the big guy with  the hoe.!ARGH.Godammit.


    ?I have decided to grant you your desire, since your status was not much different from a peasant, at least that''s what my lawyer said.¡° Wait?Who is your lawyer?NO, that''s irrelevant now.


    ?My desire?¡°What do you know about me?


    ?Your desire for domination,conquest , for control over all, to stand on the top and since I am the god of war what more do I need for my champion, and well if you it''s not big deal, at least for me.If you don''t disappoint me, I may even give you another chance after your death.¡°Eeeh, I know I wanted to do something great enough to be remembered in history but world domination? Man this is getting out of control I better stop him before it''s too late.


    ?Your...Your CHAMPION?!??!?!?¡° Damn, why the hell am I stuttering right now!


    ?Yes, am I not CLEAR ENOUGH PUNY MORTAL!!!¡° Just because you are a god doesn''t mean you can shout at me.


    ?Yyes Ssir!¡°Crap, I''m totally intimidated.I don''t think I can escape from this.


    ?Good, now we can proceed.You will be sent to a world which is similar to the medieval times on Earth, but they have magic.¡°What?Magic?It exist?Crap, how can I even survive then?


    ?Magic?¡°


    ?Yes,magic, is there a problem?¡°


    ?No, no, no Your Excellency,I am just saying that I don''t know any magic, I will get immediately killed if fight with a magician.¡°


    ?Hahaha, so you are afraid.And you should be, no good warrior is fearless.But that is why you are my champion and my champions get special abilities.¡°


    ?Special abilities?¡°


    ?Yes, usually I let my champion choose his abilities, but you cannot.¡°


    ?What? WHY?!¡°


    ?Kekeke, do you remember that Grand Strategy-RTS game you often play at home?¡°


    ?Yees,why?¡°


    ?And do you remember when you were playing online and accepted a challenge from AresMars475


    and after you won, you called him a noob?¡°


    ?What?When was that?Wait, THAT WAS YOU?¡° FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!This bastard killed me because of a fucking videogame!


    ?Hahahaha, now who is a noob.¡° What the hell is wrong with this guy?!?!??!?!?


    ?So now you will get the abilities from the game and conquer the world so we can see if that was a fluke or not.¡° Eh, well that''s not so bad, at least I am familiar with them


    ?So you will get a headquarters, a set amount of points and a squad of combat engineers  in the beginning, also I will plant you in the middle of a forrest and give you a month or so for a quick tutorial and after that you are on your own.¡°


    ?With points you will be able buy everything your army needs, from food to ammunition, but of course if you find materials for stuff, you can build it yourself.¡°


    ?Your technology level will start from 1946 and by killing, conquering and occupying territory you will earn points to unlock more weapons,more technology and if you want, you can summon famous warlords, generals, strategists and such but they will be costly.¡°


    ?Wow, that''s cool, but you still killed  me because of a damn game.¡°


    ?Haha, who told you to be arrogant in front of a god.¡°


    ?Well, it''s time for you to go now.Hahaha, have fun Erik, try not to die immediately.¡°Yeah fuck that guy


    ?Oh by the way, did you know, I can read your thoughts?¡° FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKK!


    If someone told you one day that playing videogames would end your life and then save your life, would you believe them?

 Chapter 1

    Chapter 1


    When I regained consciousness, I found myself lying on a clearing inside a forest.


    ?Urgh, where the hell am I ?¡°


    ?Where is this place?¡°


    After getting up and looking around the place, I noticed that there is nothing here.Also it seems that I''m dressed in some kind of military uniform with a bunch of medals.Is this some kind of joke that I''m not getting?


    I wondered where is that base and those engineers Ares promised me.


    Do I have to summon them or something?Hmm, probably.Yeah let''s try that.


    Wait how do you even summon people and buildings?Do you say something or make some kind of magic circle?!I don''t know how to make magic circles!


    Let''s try some clich¨¦s. Maybe that will work,I hope it''s not some obscure password.


    ? Status.....¡°


    ........


    ........


    ........


    ?Eh, seriously it''s not Status?¡° What kind of story is this, when the main character can''t even summon his status?!?! Damn you Ares, where is that damn tutorial you promised!


    ?Let''s try something else, System Check.¡°


    .......


    .......


    ......


    ?Goddamnit,Start tutorial?!?¡°


    ......


    ......


    .....


    [Tutorial is starting]


    ?Hahaha finally my road to greatness is open!!¡° Shit, that was close. I could have died without even firing a shot.


    [You can check your status by saying the command: System Status]


    ?Oh come on, I was so close there. Alrighty then, let''s begin this adventure.¡°


    ?System Status¡°


    [Status]


    [Store]


    [Abilities]


    [Map]


    [Help]


    Alright, let''s check my status first.


    [Name:Erik Hartmann]


    [Level: 1]


    [Race: Human]


    [Occupation: Ares'' Champion]


    [Health: 10]


    [Mana: N/A]


    [Strength: 8]


    [Agility: 9]


    [Stamina: 7]


    [Intelligence: 13]


    [Wisdom: 10]


    [Leadership: 13]


    [Abilities: 3]


    Titles: Champion of Ares, No Mana Freak, Natural Leader, Intelligent


    Points: 0


    ?Tch, zero points, you could have at least given me a couple thousand points as an apology.¡°


    ? Uuh, I have abilities, even 3 of them?¡°


    [3 abilities have been granted by God Ares to improve your odds of survival in the tutorial. You can inspect abilities via the ?Ability¡° command.]


    ?Wwhat- arre-are my odds for survival?¡°


    ?49%¡°


    .....


    .....


    ....


    ?EEEEEEEEEhhhhhhh?!?!? Is this a joke?¡°What kind of hellhole was I dropped into?It''s not even 50-50. That damn Ares even the damn tutorial is abnormal, although being transported to another world isn''t that normal either.I should really start freaking out but I can''t.


    For some reason my emotional outbursts are very short, this doesn''t even phase me that much.Maybe it''s because of those abilities?I should check them.


    ?Ability¡°


    [Abilities]


    [Body Strenghtening(Low)]


    [Mind Strengthening(High)]


    [Accelerated Language Comprehension skills(MAX)]


    ?Hehe, I''ve become stronger and smarter.Who knows, maybe I''ve become more handsome too.¡°


    [You can spend earned points in the store.You can access the store via the ?Store¡° command,


    Because this is the tutorial, you are to outfit yourself with basic equipment and you get a free base headquarters with a squad of combat engineers ]


    ?Great, at least I will have someone to talk to before we all end up dead.¡°


    ?Store¡°


    [HQ]


    [Army]


    [Airforce]


    [Navy]


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    [Research]


    ?HQ¡°


    After I said HQ , my status screen was replaces by a bird-eye view of the forest. Yep, its huge, and there is no visible end because I haven''t started exploring this land yet.


    And then appeared a ghost blueprint of the HQ. Wow this really is like a game, that god seriously pisses me off, he turned my life into a game.


    Anyways , it seems that this clearing is pretty much flat so it will be easy to defend. I planted the HQ


    right in the middle of the clearing.And right in front of me appeared a magic circle which coincidentally blinded me.


    In front of me appeared a grey, two-story building with an unremarkable design. I guess if I want a decent base I should build it on my own.


    Right so that''s that.Now finally to get some slav-subordinates.


    "Army"


    I picked barracks and then Combat Engineer( a squad is 8-12 people in NATO).


    Eight magic circles appeared near me and 8 people popped into existence with a flash of light.


    ?General, Engineer squad reporting for duty.¡° Wow, since when am I a general? Whatever, let''s pretend I''m not shocked by someone calling an 18 year old teenager general.


    ?Engineers, I''m assigning you to fortify our new base. I want trenches by the end of the day around my base.Understood?¡°


    ?But, sir...¡°


    ?Yes?¡°


    ?We don''t have any equipment.¡° Eeeeh, I forgot to take the basic equipment.Let''s pretend everything is fine, yes everything is fine .One thing at a time.


    ?That will be momentarilly fixed soldier.¡°


    Let''s see.


    ?Store¡° Now where do i find equipment?Let''s try logistics.


    ?Logistics¡°


    Jackpot! There is  basic equipment , lets pick this and get started.


    ?Buy Basic equipment.¡°


    [Basic equipment is free] Ding!


    [Basic equipment bought]


    [Army fatigues]


    [STG44 assault rifle]


    [M39 hand-grenade]


    [Walther P-38 pistol]


    [Entrenching tool]


    [First-aid]


    [Knapsack]


    [Helmet]


    [Military boots]


    [Military gloves]


    Again with the magic circles, now they appeared under the soldiers and equiped them all with basic equipment


    ?Soldier, is everything now in order?¡°


    ?Sir, yes, Sir!¡° Phew,I didnt even realize I was holding my breath, it seems I was more nervous than I thought.


    [The tutorial has now entered phase two.Prepare for battle during the next week.]


    Humph,humph now that I have my gun with me nobody can stop me.


    So what is a general of 8 people supposed to do now?I know, no army can march on an empty stomach hehehe.But where is the food?


    I decided to enter the unremarkable building that is my current HQ and search for food.I found a room that is probably a makeshift kitchen but no food.


    ?What the hell? How am I supposed to feed my army? I can''t live on air! Damn you Ares!¡°


    It seems that my civilization, as short-lived as it is, has regressed back to a hunter-gatherer society. It seems that I will have to hunt for food. Maybe there are some animals nearby.


    Meat.


    Good idea!


    I ran out of the building and went to my slav-subordinates


    ?Ahem, soldiers it seems that our supply of food is nonexistent.I require two of you to come with me and hunt for food.¡°


    ?Yes,Sir!¡°


    We went on our way immediatelly, as it seems it''s already noon. Where did my morning go?!


    Usually in light novels in these situations the people who are from the beginning with you most of the time become friends or companions who adventure together.


    I should probably try at least memorizing their names in the immeadiate future.


    We were walking around the edges of the clearing looking for any animals that looked tasty, but to no avail.


    As I was about to attempt to befriend my soldiers, I was ambushed by a small fluffy furrball.


    Yes, indeed it was the iconic horned rabit. I didn''t wan''t this kind of fantasy story! I wanted to be UNIQUE! But it seemed that Ares wasn''t paying much attention to things besides war and farmers.


    The damned animal fortunately collided with my rifle, othewise I would have had a new horn-shaped hole in my body.


    After that happened, well we found out that this rabbit couldn''t outrun bullets. Although we may have gone a bit overboard since the rabbit exploded all over the forest.


    After that we decided to head back with whatever was left of the rabbit because we probably scared every animal in this forest.


    After lunch I left my men to their work while I decided to conserve energy in my headquarters.Yeah,headquarters, that still sounds weird.


    This whole general thing is going to need some getting used to.

 Chapter 2

    Chapter 2


    Come evening on the first day, I was dead tired, it seemed that this whole ordeal took a toll on my psyche.


    I was woken up the next day by a grumbling stomach. I think this is the first time in my life that I was hungry but no one was here to feed me.


    I guess I should have been more thankful to my parents while I was on Earth. Wait, now that I think about it, isn¡¯t the general basically the parent of the army?!


    ¡°What the hell, I seriously need more points or we will all die. Why are there no cheats! I want to go home! I don¡¯t want children!¡±


    ¡°Now, since I vented my frustrations let¡¯s go fix this shit.¡±


    I tried to put on my medal-studded uniform but a small detail caught my eye. The medals, why do I have medals on my uniform?


    And then I saw the inscriptions on the medals: Champion of Ares, No Mana Freak, Natural Leader, Intelligent


    Yeah, those are my titles. Won¡¯t everyone know what titles I have by looking at my medals? Can I hide them somehow, because it seems they won¡¯t come of my uniform after trying?


    Am I not in the tutorial right now? I should try to find out if there isn¡¯t something in the menu to help me.


    ¡°System Status¡±


    [Status]


    [Store]


    [Abilities]


    [Map]


    [Help]


    Oh, there is a map and a help tab also here. I didn¡¯t even notice it yesterday; I really need to get a grip on the situation otherwise I will lead everyone to their doom. Let¡¯s check out the map first.


    ¡°Map¡±


    The screen changed to a bird-eye view again. The map only shows the immediate surroundings and everything else was shrouded in fog. Wait, is this the so called fog of war?


    Well the map is useless for now. Exploration comes after I survive tutorial. Well IF I survive the tutorial.


    Next, let¡¯s check the help tab.


    ¡°Help¡±


    [State your inquiry] Oh, that¡¯s cool; I don¡¯t have to search through useless FAQs


    ¡°Is there a way to hide my titles?¡±


    [You can hide or unhide your titles with the commands ¡°Hide {Title Name}¡± and ¡°Unhide {Title Name}]


    ¡°Great.¡± With my newfound knowledge I hid all of my titles. Maybe one day this will come in handy, but now it¡¯s just useless weight.


    After the situation was resolved I was planning on checking up on the progress of my engineers.


    As I was leaving my headquarters I stumbled on something and fell down on my ass. Well, this is embarrassing.


    When I looked around my surroundings I was left stunned. It seems that I have stepped on my own engineers. They were all sleeping outside the headquarters. I must have forgotten to tell them they are allowed to sleep inside the headquarters with me. I really suck as a general.


    Oh great, now they are waking up; I must have disturbed their sleep. Yup, as soon as they saw me, they started freaking out and kicking each other awake. They lined up and saluted me. Is this going to be my life from now on?


    ¡°Gener-¡° I interrupted his apology speech.


    ¡°Stand at ease soldier.¡±


    ¡°Yyes Sir!¡± Well what the hell am I supposed to say now? Discipline is important, but being high-strung is detrimental to organization. Let¡¯s pretend this never happened.Brilliant plan indeed.


    It seems that they have already finished the trenches. Yes, this is a good opportunity to pass of my mistakes as rewards. Heh good job me.


    ¡°I can see that you have finished the trenches. Excellent, from now on you can sleep inside the headquarters and also be my temporary guards.¡±


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    After my bullshiting ended, everything went well. My soldiers were happy and I didn¡¯t come off as an incompetent idiot.


    ¡°Grrrumble¡± Dammnit, can I not enjoy a single moment in my life? We need food.


    ¡°Alright today we will all go to the forest to hunt for food.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±


    I was a bit more careful today; I don¡¯t want to end up dead without accomplishing at least something.


    We advanced in a diamond formation, this is a new experience for me; being protected by others. Ah, I must succeed if not for myself at least for them since they care this much for me.


    We advanced through the bushes on the perimeter but we had no luck. It was only bushes and trees everywhere. It was already lunchtime when we were returning back with our heads down.


    As we were stepping into the clearing on the way home one of my soldiers signaled for the formation to stop.


    What is going on?! Is there an enemy?


    ¡°Sir, it appears that while we were gone, some animals appeared.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Someone is so daring? How dare they!


    ¡°Are they still there?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir it seems they are rummaging through the traces of rabbits we cooked yesterday. The animals appear to be wolves but they are a size too big.¡±


    ¡°Heh, accidental bait it seems. Good, let us assume position and score us some food.¡±


    It seems I wasn¡¯t the only one hungry here. Yup, they are even drooling.


    As they say, birds die for food, people for treasure; but if they had seen the gleam in my soldiers that day they wouldn¡¯t have dared to utter such rubbish.


    Those 3 wolves knew not what hit them. We divided the targets between us and fired all at the same time.


    Bang! Rata-tata-ta!(SFX for gunfire or my guess at least)


    The 3 wolves turned their heads towards the sound but in the next moment they exploded in a mixture of blood and bones. One even got his head blown off.


    What went unnoticed during the moment, was the realization that I suck at shooting! I didn¡¯t hit anything, heck I even shot my own headquarters. This is utterly embarrassing.


    I need to practice my shooting to be at least passable. What kind of general sucks at being a soldier?


    But at least lunch was enjoyable. Wolf meat is tasty although it is a bit too hard for my own tastes. I need to summon a chef as soon as possible.


    Lunch was spent in silence while my army was devouring the unfortunate wolves.


    Is this the so-called survival of the fittest? What if I am not the fittest around here? What if my army is destroyed by the natives? Can I win against these magic-wielding people? How many magicians are there even? How powerful are they?


    Crap, I need to stop otherwise this spiral will be never ending. Relax, one thing at a time.


    First comes the tutorial, I will leave everything else to future me. I hope he won¡¯t hate me too much.


    The rest of the week went by really fast. It is a massive drain of time to hunt for food. We hadn¡¯t had time for anything else. This needs to be rectified in the future.


    I can¡¯t even stomach the sight of those damn rabbits; they have been our primary supply of food throughout the week. If I see any more rabbits, they will die a gruesome death.


    At least my shooting has improved somewhat. On the seventh day in the morning while I was being depressed inside my headquarters a screen appeared in front of me.


    [First wave: 1:00:00]


    [First wave: 0:59:59]


    [First wave: 0:59:58]


    Oh boy, here we go. Damn, can¡¯t even pray to a god since I know the asshole.

 Chapter 3

    Chapter 3


    I was staring at the screen for a couple of seconds after which I promptly broke out in cold sweat.


    The first wave! Shit! I''m not ready yet! Okay calm down Erik, we can do this. I''m going to survive this!


    I promptly ran out of the headquarters almost bumping into a soldier. Still don¡¯t know their names.


    Focus, Erik, focus we can deal with that afterwards.


    ¡°Soldiers, we have an emergency situation. The enemy will be upon us in one hour.¡±


    ¡°We possess no intelligence regarding the invaders and their fighting power.¡±


    ¡°Start preparing yourself physically and mentally as best as you can.¡±


    ¡°Someone go mark the 300 and 100 meters distance. Also we will barricade ourselves into the base and defend ourselves from there.¡±


    ¡°Oh, and someone go make a hole in the roof and climb upstairs so we can spot the enemies.¡±


    ¡°If we cannot hold our headquarters we will certainly die so we must hold this position! Am I clear soldiers?¡±


    ¡°SIR, YES SIR!¡±  Well I¡¯m glad at least someone is confident. Unknown enemy coming from an unknown direction with unknown combat power. Is there anything more frightening for a commander?


    I hope we will survive this somehow. I don¡¯t want to see that smug bastard and his smug face.


    During the next hour we pilled everything from beds to kitchen pots next to the door. Since there are only windows on the second floor we can consider ourselves lucky. The door will make a nice killing zone.


    I took position on the second floor looking out of the windows while the engineers split into three teams.


    One person was on the roof trying to spot the enemy while five were inside the trenches and two were positioned to provide covering fire from the doors if need be. I hope not.


    As the only person to see the countdown the pressure was immense. The ticking felt like some kind of death sentence. After zero lies only troublesome enemies and a will to survive. The only question worth asking now is: Do you have what it takes to survive another day?


    [First wave: 0:00:02] Shit.


    [First wave: 0:00:01] Shit. Shit!


    [First wave: 0:00:00] SHIIIIIT!!!


    I was frantically looking through the windows to spot the enemy but to no avail. I was mentally exhausted before the damn fight. Are they not coming? Do we have to wait? They should have already come? Why are they not coming?


    While I was losing my mind a shout came from the soldier on the roof. The ground was slightly trembling. What the hell is going on?


    ¡°The enemy!!!¡±


    As I put my head through the window I almost fell out of it. Fuck! Can I please not die so stupidly?! I am not asking for much!!!


    The first thing I saw was the color white. Littered around the perimeter, peeking out of the bushes white dots. What are those?


    As the realization dawned upon me, my mind went blank.


    ¡­


    ¡­


    ¡­


    It¡¯s the fucking rabbits! FUCK your mother! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Can I not have at least a shred of dignity left?!?!?


    One day when someone asks me: Erik how was your first battle? WHAT THE FUCK am I supposed to say? Oh, that¡¯s easy I was attacked by a rabbit horde. It was thrilling as fuck. After that we had rabbits for lunch for a loooong time.


    Goddamn rabbits, Ares aren¡¯t you looking down upon me a bit too much?


    Well it turned out he didn¡¯t.


    It was a fight for the ages, well at least for the rabbits. As for their human counterparts they were part hungry part embarrassed.


    At first we were surprised, then for a moment we were hungry and after that we realized that we were surrounded. Yes, surrounded, you heard me. The bushes were full of white dots wherever you looked.


    For a good minute there was only the sound of movement inside the bushes and the multiplication of white dots in my view.


    After that, well after that was only pure chaos. All the goddamned rabbits attacked at the same time. It was an avalanche of fluffiness with a touch of death by impalement.


    I did my best to stay calm by issuing orders.


    ¡°Get ready everyone! ¡°


    ¡°Even if the enemy is rabbits we must do our utmost to survive today!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to put on your gravestones: Died while fighting against rabbits!!!¡±


    ¡°It would be too embarrassing and I don¡¯t want to go down in history for this!!!!¡±


    ¡°When they come in range, open fire and don¡¯t stop until every single one of those fluffy bastards is dead!!!¡±


    That asshole is definitely behind this, can I not live in peace?!? I¡¯m sorry for calling you a noob, I¡¯M SORRY!!!


    While I was regretting my cockiness, the rabbits were zooming across the clearing. They were nearing the effective range of our weapons and soon, very soon they will start dying. I only hope that we have enough bullets.


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    600 meters


    500 meters Wait.


    400 meters Wait. Wait Erik, not yet.


    350 meters So close. Come on you fluffy bastards, let this daddy show you the power of humanity!


    300 meters


    ¡°OPEN FIRE!!¡±


    BANG! BANG! Rata-tata-ta


    The first of the rabbits literally exploded into air and painted the ground and the surrounding rabbits red. Almost every bullet went through a couple of rabbits. It was easy to aim but there were too many of them. Soon the rabbits were upon us.


    When the rabbits advanced to the 100 meters mark the engineers started retreating while providing covering fire. As soon as everyone was inside the house we closed the door and piled everything onto the door to stop the rabbits from coming through although I doubted it would stop them for long.


    The engineers spread out on the second floor and shot at the rabbits from the windows. One soldier was watching the door for any breakthroughs and another soldier and I were shooting atop the roof.


    Why was I on top the roof you ask? Well it was a unanimous decision between us after all, since I was a coward and they were willing to die for me. I wasn¡¯t very good at this fighting business. So there you go. I know, I was ashamed of myself but I was practically a kid at that time. My life was very important to me.


    Everything was going fine for a couple of minutes while the door held and the rabbits were insanely jumping around the base. But the doors weren¡¯t impervious to constant impalement.


    The first rabbit collided into the obstacles behind the doors and died under a hail of bullets. But even that couldn¡¯t stop them. As soon as there appeared a critical mass of fluffiness, the stairs were lost.


    The engineer tried to retreat onto the second floor but he didn¡¯t make it. A shooting rabbit impaled him right in the chest knocking him over. Fortunately, he didn¡¯t immediately die but unfortunately he was mobbed by rabbits and the last thing heard from below was the sound of chain grenade explosions.


    At that particular moment I somehow sensed he was dead, it was creepy to the utmost. I did my best not to puke.


    Is this how it¡¯s going to be from now on? Fuck! I can¡¯t let this happen again!


    But life was hell bent on screwing me over. There was probably a joke or two to be made about my new life but at the time I wasn¡¯t in the mood.


    The door to the second floor was almost instantaneously broken through. All the firepower we could bear was aimed at the door. There were the 6 engineers on the second floor and one engineer and me shooting through a hole atop the roof.


    There was a small mountain of rabbits right at the door but even that couldn¡¯t prevent the onslaught of the rabbit horde. The engineers threw grenades into the stairs and for a second there were no more rabbits coming through but that lasted only for a short while. While the engineers were reloading their weapons the rabbits stormed into the second floor and there was a bloody massacre.


    All of the engineers died but not before pulling the pins out of their grenades and sending themselves and the rabbits to death.


    Fucking hell! I told you guys not to die!!!


    It seemed to be over for a moment but it was not meant to be.


    Due to the grenade explosions the roof under us was full of holes and we fell through. We quickly got up and intensely searched for rabbits but there were none. The engineer went to check the stairs or what was left of them.


    He just got there in time to die. A small band of surviving rabbits was trying to get up to the second floor by jumping and they impaled him to death.


    I was the only one left. I immediately threw a grenade after him because I was certain he was dead.


    After that there was only the uncomfortable silence until it was broking by the sounds of a rabbit.


    There were only two survivors. One man, one rabbit. At that moment it became very personal for me.


    These fucking rabbits killed everyone!


    It tried to ram me but I trained my STG44 at it and shot. Unfortunately, even though I shot it mid-air it still knocked out the gun out of my hands.


    It was time to get up close and personal. I pulled out my army knife and went into a rage induced frenzy.  In close-quarters it was not my match.


    It was a good couple of minutes of me stabbing the rabbit to death.


    After I calmed down, I was covered top to bottom in blood. I cried bloody tears immediately when I comprehended everything that happened. I still didn¡¯t know their names.


    As for what I will say when someone asks me about my first battle? Fucking rabbits.

 Store list/prices- comment to add or revise

    Kill 1 LVL1 creature/person = 1P


    1LVL = 1 YEAR in tech advancement


    HQ 1000P


    Engineer 10P


    Army ArmyBase 1000P(Barracks+SWC+Motorpool+TankDepot+Triage center+Supply yard)


    Barracks 100P


    Support Weapons Center 100P


    Motor Pool 200P


    Tank Depot 300P


    Triage Center 200P


    Supply Yard 100P


    Infantry


    Infantry 10P


    Motorized Infantry 50P


    Motorized Engineers 50P


    Half-Track 40P


    Officer 100P


    Commandos 500P


    Paratroopers 300P


    MG team 25P


    Mortar team 50P


    Sniper 100P


    Recon


    Sdkfz 234/4 Puma 30P


    Tank


    Panther Ausf.G 150P


    Tiger II 200P


    M26 Pershing 150P


    Centurion 180P


    Artillery


    75mm haubitze 5P


    150mm haubitze 10P


    SPG Hummel 50P


    Panzerwerfer 42 60P


    Sturmtiger 70P


    AA


    FLAK 43 37mm 25P


    FLAK 40 128mm 30P


    Flakpanzer IV Ostwind 60P


    Transport


    Opel Blitz 5P


    Air Force AirBase 2000P Air field 1000P


    Interceptor


    Hawker Tempest 300P


    FW Ta-152H 300P


    P-51D Mustang 300P


    F8F Bearcat 300P


    Me 262 600P


    Recon


    Mosquito B 300P


    Fi 282 200P


    Tactical Bomber


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.SB2C Helldiver 300P


    Strategic Bomber


    Ar 234 900P


    A-26 Invader 600P


    B29 Superfortess 850P


    Avro Lancaster 800P


    Transport


    BV 222 Viking 450 P


    Ar 232 550 P


    C-54 Skymaster 550P


    Fa 223 400P


    Navy NavalBase 5000P Sea Port 1000P


    Submarines


    Sub Type XXI 1500P


    Sub Type XXIII 750P


    Capital Ships


    CV Midway 5000P


    BB Yamato 4750P


    BB Iowa 4500P


    CB Scharnhorst-class 4000P


    CA Hipper-class 3000P


    CA Baltimore 3000P


    Escort Ships


    DD Battle-class 1500P


    DD Fletcher-class 1500P


    Patrol


    Flower-class 1000P


    TP boat 100P


    Transport


    Liberty-class 100P


    LCVP 10P


    LCT 20P


    LVT  Amtrak 20P


    Comfort-class 300P


    Missiles  Missile factory 1000P


    V1 200P


    V2 400P


    Barbed Wire 1P/m


    Tank trap 1P


    Mines 1P


    MG emplacement 30P


    ARTY emplacement 50P


    AT/AA emplacement 50P


    1P/Kg Food


    1P/L Fuel(any kind to keep it simple)


    This is just what I got for now. This is just me compiling all the options he has for the up to 1946 period.

 Chapter 4

    Chapter 4


    In the background of my regrets the system was trying to tell me something. When I finally gave it a glance I was surprised.


    I actually leveled up!


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have new titles]


    ¡°Fuck, trying to be cute and shit; how about you give me back my soldiers? ¡°This wasn¡¯t a game. Well at least for me it wasn¡¯t. That arrogant bastard just keeps screwing me over and over. I hadn¡¯t had a good night¡¯s sleep for days; barely surviving on rabbits and wolves and some berries which gave us all the runs.


    I mean he said this was tutorial. Who dies from starvation during a tutorial? That¡¯s not how games work!


    It can¡¯t possibly get worse, right?


    [999 Rabbit horde cleared.]


    [Second wave in 7 days]


    ...


    ...


    ...


    ¡°Fuck.¡±


    I got up to my feet and found where the stairs used to be and jumped down to the first floor. I walked through the remains of the door and stepped outside to get some fresh air. I smelled of blood and gunpowder.


    And dead rabbits. They were every-fucking-where!


    And the biggest problem I had was: Who was going to eat all of this?!?!


    [You have a new message]


    ¡°Eh, who could it possibly be?¡±


    [Good job with the whole business of not getting killed. Also because I¡¯m such a nice person here is 500 points for keeping your limbs attached to your body. -Ares]


    ¡°FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! FUCK YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!! Fucking fuck; smug bastard go die in some war you noob!!!!¡±


    While I was screaming my lungs out I heard a sound behind me. It was the sound of crumbling.


    The building that I called home for these past few days collapsed onto itself.


    ...


    ...


    ...


    I became a homeless person.


    ¡°FUCK! I dare you! Do it again! Come at me bro! Kick me while I¡¯m down! FUUCK!¡± I was ready to cry but somehow a switch in my brain was flipped and I became a sea of calm.


    To this day I still insist that my life isn¡¯t a game.


    I wasn¡¯t immensely pleased with my situation so I turned to the system for help.


    ¡°System Status¡±


    [Status]


    [Store]


    [Abilities]


    [Map]


    [Help]


    Let''s see, I should first check out my status and then summon something from the store.


    ¡°Status ¡°


    [Name: Erik Hartmann]


    [Level: 2]


    [Race: Human]


    [Occupation: Ares'' Champion]


    [Health:10]


    [Mana: N/A]


    [Strength:8]


    [Agility:9]


    [Stamina:7]


    [Intelligence:13]


    [Wisdom:10]


    [Leadership: 13]


    [Abilities:3]


    Titles: Champion of Ares, No Mana Freak, Natural Leader, Intelligent, Enemy of Rabbits


    Points: 1506


    ¡°Finally! I got me some points!¡± Now let¡¯s go on a shopping spree!


    ¡°Store¡±


    [HQ]


    [Army]


    [Airforce]


    [Navy]


    [Logistics]


    [Research]


    Since I can''t really go anywhere right now, I should try to fortify what''s left of my position. Right now I need new engineers to fix my base and see what I can buy with my hard-earned points.


    ¡°Army¡±


    [Buildings]


    [Infantry]


    [Recon]


    [Tank]


    [AT]


    [Artillery]


    [AA]


    [Transport]


    [Miscellaneous]


    ¡°Buildings¡±


    [Barracks 100P]


    [Support Weapons Center 100P]


    [Motor Pool 200P]


    [Tank Depot 300P]


    [Triage Center 200P]


    [Supply Yard 100P]


    [MG Emplacement 30P]


    [AT Emplacement 50P]


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.[AA Emplacement 50P]


    I bought the barracks, the supply yard and the triage center. I can¡¯t fuck up like last time. Everybody was going to have unlimited bullets and doctors at a second¡¯s notice. I placed the buildings right next to the rubble that was my base. The facilities came fully staffed which was nice, at least I don¡¯t have to deal with that problem. I also bought four machine gun emplacements to cover the four cardinal directions.


    I spent 520P.


    After that came the actual army.


    ¡°Infantry¡±


    [Infantry 10P]


    [Motorized Infantry 50P]


    [Motorized Engineers 50P]


    [Half-Track 40P]


    [Officer 100P]


    [Commandos 500P]


    [Paratroopers 300P]


    [MG team 25P]


    [Mortar team 50P]


    [Sniper 100P]


    After thinking about it for a couple of minutes what I came up with was a single squad of engineers, 10 infantry squads, a sniper and a mortar team. I also spent an additional 10P on flamethrowers for the engineers. It¡¯s going to be a hot day in hell.


    I spent 300P. I was left with 686P


    There were the usual magic circles and I was again blinded by the light. Seriously, someone needed to fix that shit.


    My army magically appeared in front of me. It was much more impressive this time around.


    I immediately started giving out orders before I get intimidated by the situation.


    ¡°Soldiers, we have a week of time to prepare for battle!¡±


    ¡°I will announce your assignments now.¡±


    ¡°Engineers, go fix my base. You have a whole forest at your disposal. There are no tree huggers for miles around here so you can go all out. Also create killing zones for the machine gunners in the four cardinal directions. You have sandbags, barbed wires, tank traps and mines at your disposal. If by the end of the week this place doesn¡¯t remind you of Cambodia there will be hell to pay!!!¡±


    ¡°SIR, YES SIR!¡± Good, at least someone was paying attention.


    ¡°Infantry squads clean up the trenches, that will be your home for the immediate future. Also the rabbits are for breakfast, lunch and dinner so be careful and place sandbags where needed to make your position impregnable.¡±


    ¡°SIR, YES SIR!¡± It was less enthusiastic this time around, was it the rabbits? It was the fucking rabbits.


    ¡°The mortar team will find a position and mark the firing distances for the battle.¡±


    ¡°SIR, YES SIR!¡±


    ¡°As for our sniper, eh? Where is he? Oh, there you are. Well you can go and create yourself a vantage point. Create a small hill or something. There is plenty of dirt here for you.¡±


    ¡°SIR, YES SIR!¡± Seriously stop shouting! I¡¯m already half- blind from all the summoning and now you want me to become deaf too!


    ¡°Dismissed!¡± Phew, finally I can relax. Good thing that I¡¯m on this side of the orders otherwise I would have already keeled over.


    I sat in front of my home and watched the soldiers go about their business. The best piece of knowledge I found out was that my soldiers can summon things by themselves in the supply yard.


    I checked my status and immediately noticed my points trickling out.


    It¡¯s nice that I didn¡¯t have to micromanage everything.


    Dinner was uneventful but we had spices now so it wasn¡¯t that bad. I seriously don¡¯t know how I managed to survive here without salt and pepper.


    Never again. If I have to, I will go to war for food. Nobody can stop me from enjoying my food!


    Yes, that will be my new motto: If you want to eat, prepare for war!

 Ares Interlude

    Ares Interlude


    While our not so brave main character was fighting for his life, the god who put him there, Ares was having a small get-together. He invited all of his battle maniac friends to enjoy the adventures of Erik. He had prepared a small banquet and copious amounts of wine for the guests.


    That kind of event happened every time Ares found a new champion for his use. Every one invited already knew about it so they were only mildly interested.


    But what they didn¡¯t know was that this champion wasn¡¯t like his predecessors. They all boasted personal strength with straight-forward personalities. Valiant, overbearing and intimidating.


    ¡°Ares, your last champion, what happened to him?¡±


    ¡°He died on the battlefield at twenty-five. I was going to revive him for another round but I couldn¡¯t find his soul later on. It was awkward since I promised to revive him but ehh.¡±


    At that time a sultry voice rang out.


    ¡°Ah, Ares my dear friend that would be my fault. Your champions always make for good doggies. He even met some of his seniors and made friends.¡±


    After that there were only sounds of popping veins and exploding armrests.


    But Erik was a 183 cm tall, 75kg man with no visible muscles. His only redeeming quality was a good head on his shoulders. Everyone his of his predecessors could slap him to death without breaking a sweat.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    As the gods laid eyes upon Erik¡¯s figure, they were visibly stunned. They were all thinking that Ares had gone blind or became ill.


    ¡°Look at that guy. He almost got killed by a rabbit. My unborn son is stronger than him.¡± (Random god #1) His son was a demi-god so it was a bit unfair to Erik the puny human.


    ¡°Where are the muscles? Where are the greatswords? Where are the spears and the shields?!?!¡± (Random god #2) This god was bit simple in the head.


    ¡°Is he possibly a magician? Ares, since when did you start liking magicians?¡± Erik the Magician wasn¡¯t a popular act among the gods.


    In response to their incessant complaining, Ares would only say: ¡°Wait for it¡­.¡±


    And waited they did, otherwise Ares would have kicked their faces in.


    Erik and his assistants displayed their fire magic and murdered the rabbits but at great costs.


    Only Erik survived to live another day.


    ¡°Huh, well at least he survived the rabbits somehow. His magic is mediocre at best.¡± (Random god #3 chiming in)


    ¡°Well, Ares as you said he is still going through that ¡°tutorial¡± thing so we will give you some face and watch over your champion. Although he doesn¡¯t strike me as much but who knows what will happen in the future.¡± (Random god #4)


    Ares was still being all mysterious and saying: ¡°Wait for it¡­ It¡¯s gonna be¡­¡±

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5


    While the gods were disappointed with Erik, he was pacing back and forth while watching the engineers and soldiers at work.


    The engineers were busy clearing out the remains of the headquarters while the soldiers were laying barbed wire, tank traps and mines in an orderly manner.


    When the preparations are finished there will be four funnels in four directions that direct flow into the firing zone of the machine gunners and infantry. Everywhere else there were tanks traps and barbed wire strewn across them so nothing can pass through, be they animal or man. Also there was an ungodly amount of mines in all directions to soften up the enemy¡¯s attack.


    This time Erik will not underestimate his enemy.


    He wanted to do something himself but he was more or less useless. If he had remained on Earth, instead of coming here, he would have probably found a job in middle management.


    Food wasn¡¯t a problem anymore since there were rabbits everywhere and with the spices bought with points they were tasty enough. But that only lasted for a while. Nobody can eat rabbits every day and by the end of the week everyone was already sick of them.


    Erik was practicing shooting every day and steadily improving. It seemed that his body strengthening helped with the recoil immensely and allowed him to increase his accuracy.


    On the fourteenth day of Erik¡¯s arrival to this world and the beginning of the tutorial the enemy appeared.


    This time there was no one-hour warning. But everyone was already up and about since dawn.


    The engineers cut down trees and built a small sturdy two-story shack where the headquarters used to be. The second floor was open and on the corners sandbags were placed.


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


    On the second floor Erik was surrounded by his soldiers while gritting his teeth. He was anxious. He didn¡¯t know how many today would die and if he could even survive.


    The sniper took up position atop the roof and observed the perimeter.


    The mortar team placed distance markers in every direction.


    The infantry was inside the trenches waiting for the enemy.


    Everyone was alert and ready. Some were impatient, some were calm and some were anxious like Erik but everyone knew that they had to fight today.


    [Second wave 0:00:00]


    ¡°Everyone get ready the enemy is going to be here shortly!¡± As soon as his words fell out of his mouth the whole forest came to life.


    Sounds of movement were everywhere and it became noisy instantly.


    There were grey dots popping out of the bushes in all directions.


    Erik could only make out the color but not the enemy¡¯s identity so he shouted  to the sniper.


    ¡°What are those grey dots? What do they look like?¡±


    ¡°Sir, they seem to be wolves but I haven¡¯t such wolves before. They are a size too large and their eyes are completely red.¡±


    Erik furrowed his brows and sighed. He knew who his enemy was and that the fight will be brutal for both sides.


    ¡°Everyone, the enemy this time are demonic wolves. They have obviously gone berserk. Have no mercy and turn them into dog food!¡±


    As Erik found himself surrounded, again, he hoped that it wouldn¡¯t end up like last time.


    -----------------------------------------------------


    Your author here. The next chapter will be later today or tomorrow. Depends on my motivation.


    Now I''m gonna read some xianxias and relax.

 Chapter 6

    Chapter 6


    As Erik''s anxiety was hitting the peak the sniper added a devastating mental blow.


    ¡°Sir, there appear to be four white wolves. It seems they are commanding the grey wolves.¡±


    Erik¡¯s mind blanked until he finally remembered that wolves come in packs. And every pack has its own leader.


    These must be the legendary white wolves. Great, this may be an opportunity for us!


    ¡°Soldier, those four wolves have to die today! Snipe them before they can become a threat!¡±


    ¡°After the shot, mortar team! You are up! Fire at will! Blast them to pieces!¡±


    ¡°Everyone else prepare to engage the enemy when they advance to six hundred meters!!!¡±


    Bang!


    And snipe he did. The sniper put a bullet between a wolf¡¯s eyes. It was still looking at its potential food while drooling. Then it toppled over.


    After that, there was only chaos and howling.


    The wolves sprang into action.


    The radius of the clearing was around a kilometer and a half. It was well inside mortar range.


    There was only a thumping sound one moment.


    Boom! Boom! Boom!


    And in the next moment pieces of wolves were flying everywhere.


    But that did not deter the wolves in the slightest. They were in a murderous frenzy. Their only goal was to tear their enemy into pieces and eat them until there were only bones left.


    As the wolves were furiously running towards their prey, the prey itself had other thoughts.


    Erik was mentally exhausted but seeing the wolves run head-first into the minefields he sported an almost unnoticeable smirk on his face.


    The only wolves that survived were the ones that were advancing directly towards the four gaps in the tank traps.


    Everywhere else there was only the horrific sound of exploding wolves painting their surroundings crimson.


    The white wolves were watching the battle with almost human-like flashes in their eyes. It indicated that they were superior than their brethren but this was the first time humans didn¡¯t run away in front of their packs.


    The four them were promised great rewards but it seems they were tricked. Alas, they couldn¡¯t run away or the person who wanted to reward them would kill them all. The unknown humans they were supposed to kill were a safer bet.


    Bang!


    The sniper rifle sounded out again among the cacophony of sounds and another white wolf was laid to rest.


    When Erik noticed the death of the wolf he almost jumped out of his makeshift chair out of joy.


    But that didn¡¯t deter the wolves at all. They were fighting for their lives after all. If they ran away, they would die; if they advanced at least there was chance no matter how miniscule it was.


    The wolves jumped over the corpses of their brethren and ran ahead. They advanced in a frenzy like they were competing who would be first.


    The wolves had numerical superiority but they had only advanced six hundred meters despite all the sacrifices.


    The mortar team had limited usefulness due to the wolves¡¯ speed. The wolves mostly died in the minefields.


    While this was going on a white wolf noticed that the wolves who ran directly towards the human¡¯s didn¡¯t immediately explode from the human¡¯s magic. It howled and made its kin aware of this fact.


    And it worked.


    For a while at least.


    When the wolves stepped over the stone marking six hundred meters there was a moment where the wind stilled, everyone took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. The four MG42s roared to life as they reaped their enemy¡¯s lives.


    The vanguard of the wolves immediately turned into meat patty riddled with bullets. It seemed as though the volume of gunfire was like a giant hand slapping away at the pitiful animals daring to bare their fangs at humanity.


    The buzzsaw-like sound was interspersed with the sound the sound of STG 44s pouring fire at the wolves from the trenches and the second floor of the headquarters.


    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Ironically the wolves running through the minefields were luckier because nobody at that time was shooting at them since they were exploding on their own.


    The corpses were piling up in front the MG bunker and more and more wolves were forced to go around them straight into the minefields.


    The remaining two white wolves were numb from head to toe. The humans¡¯ and their magic were too brutal.


    As the lucky wolves who somehow survived the minefields closed in on the tank traps they were brutally divided into the unlucky ones who tried passing through and the relatively lucky ones who tried to jump over the barbed wire. But none lived for long.


    The ones who tried to go through were sliced and diced into pieces or they entangled themselves and bled out if they hadn¡¯t been shot first.


    The ones who tried jumping over revealed their weak underbelly. They were either shot in mid-air or they got caught onto the wire and spilled their guts onto the ground.


    There was a pile of corpses in front the machine gunner and now there was pile in front of the tanks traps.


    The wolves just kept coming and coming, eventually climbing over their own corpses and finally coming close to the humans to unleash their wind blades.


    Yes, they had magic but they were too far away to be a threat. But now they could finally unleash their might.


    The first line of trenches was directly blown into air. People were shredded to pieces or cut in two.


    Everyone who survived the magical attack tried to retreat through a corridor to the support trench but only a small amount of infantrymen came back successfully.


    The wolves came through the trenches but they met stiff resistance. Infantrymen threw their grenades to flush them out but sometimes they would be hit by the wind blades and explode mid-air injuring everyone.


    Erik soon had to call for a retreat to the reserve trench. Everyone who was still alive retreated there because that was the last line of defense. They had no more terrain to give up.


    The white wolves turned into a single white wolf. During the mayhem the sniper sounded out again and went unnoticed.


    The white wolf was the only one with passable intelligence who could recognize the situation at hand.


    The humans were cornered but they weren¡¯t defeated. This was the final moment. Here they will make history.


    Whether they win or lose.


    Coincidentally our champion was having the same thoughts.


    He eyed the wolves throwing themselves at his soldiers and hatefully gritted his teeth because he was completely useless here.


    His shooting was barely passable; he had no engineering degree or anything that would help him reduce the casualties.


    Being a general was much harder than being a soldier.


    Finally, the last white wolf was felled by the invisible grim reaper.


    In that moment the wolves lost the redness in their eyes and momentarily faltered.


    It seemed that they were somehow influenced by the white wolves.


    And that moment was enough to turn the tide of the battle.


    Erik seized the moment and spurred his army to new heights.


    ¡°Kill!!!Kill!!!Kill!!!¡±


    The wolves were swept away by the firepower like leaves in the wind.


    The humans have won but it was a Pyrrhic victory.


    The aftermath of the battle was marked by the stench of blood and gunpowder.


    Erik was exhausted from the tension but also the thrill of the battle and fell asleep in his chair.


    He dreamt of world peace and delicious food.


    --------------------------------------


    Your author here.


    Lookie here   https://www.patreon.com/LoneWanderer23?ty=h</a>


    Yes, I am now a certified starving artist. So throw your screen at the money. :P


    Expect a chapter a day at least from now on. I''m going full on NEET mode for the next couple of months

 Ares Interlude 2

    Ares Interlude 2


    Erik wasn''t the only one paying attention to the battle. There were also the gods. They were furiously furrowing their brows while alternating between astonishment and confusion.


    ?Individually he is useless but when there are many of them their magic becomes fearsome. ¡°(Random god #5)


    ¡°Yes, indeed it seems so. Their magic is quite formidable for humans.¡± (Random god #6)


    ¡°LEGENDARY!!!¡±


    While they were whispering among themselves Ares had a smug expression on his face while shouting.


    ¡°Hahaha, isn¡¯t he interesting? This is a first for me to witness such a weakling survive the demon wolves.¡±


    ¡°Many of my valiant and strong potential champions were eaten alive while he survived the onslaught.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that make you interested in what he will accomplish in the future.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m expecting some good wars in the future.¡±


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    ¡°Hey, Ares don¡¯t get cocky now, isn¡¯t still there the final test? How come you are so sure he will survive.¡± (Random god #7)


    ¡°Hahaha, what you don¡¯t trust my judgment? You may be the strongest among your peers but even amongst gods I can say that my champion is unrivaled. There are no better generals than him. He even defeated me at war. And I¡¯m the god of war!¡±


    ¡°What, is that true?¡± (Random god #8)


    ¡°Oh, my it seems that that unremarkable human possesses the talent for war.¡± (Random god #9)


    ¡°How many will he kill?¡± (Random god #10)


    ¡°Well, just watch and see. He has plenty of points and options now. From here on out he will go on the offensive.¡±


    Erik was fast asleep but from time to time he shivered as if he was a rat in a cage and he couldn¡¯t escape.


    -------------


    Your author here.


    Here, some crack for you to nibble on.

 Chapter 7

    Chapter 7


    When Erik finally opened his eyes it was already the morning of the next day.


    His body was stiff from sleeping in the chair. He got up on his feet and went outside to do some morning exercises.


    As he was stepping through the door he was seen by a soldier who was startled for a second but quickly recovered and saluted Erik.


    Before the soldier could say anything, Erik held up his hands and said, ¡°At ease soldier. I¡¯m still half-asleep. Let the others rest a bit longer.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir,¡± the soldier said


    Erik asked, ¡°How many survived yesterday?¡±


    ¡°All the engineers; twenty-three infantrymen; the mortar team; all the logistics people and doctors; and the sniper.¡±


    Erik paused for a while and asked, ¡°Any injuries?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid,¡± the soldier said with a sigh, ¡°not sir.¡±


    Erik didn¡¯t like the tone in the soldier¡¯s voice and inquired, ¡°Why is that a bad thing?¡±


    The soldier blanked for a moment and said with a gloomy voice, ¡°Sir, those wolves yesterday were too vicious. Everyone who was unlucky enough to face them head-on was either split in half or lost a limb and bled out. It was as if they were shredded to pieces. The unluckier ones survived but only temporarily. ¡°


    ¡°What do you mean the unluckier ones survived?¡± Erik was already assuming the worst and reality didn¡¯t disappoint him.


    The soldier said,¡± You are a lucky man sir. They had to be euthanized. Their internal organs were turned into meat patty and their bodies were failing. It was devastating for the doctors. Some of them even cried after they finished.¡±


    While the soldier talked, Erik became paler and paler. As soon as the soldier finished talking, Erik tried to vomit but there was nothing to be vomited.


    He sat down on the ground, coincidentally straight into a pool of blood. The cowardly general was covered in more blood than some of his soldiers.


    On that day he wowed to change himself. Erik the coward died and Erik Invictus was born.


    While Erik was on the crossroad of life, the system was waiting was for him to use it.


    ¡°Alright, no more moping around. I need to ascertain my status now.¡±, Erik said with forced courage.


    Before he could open his system, he noticed there were new notifications.


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have new title(s)]


    [2004 Demon Wolves horde cleared.]


    [Next wave in 7 days.]


    Erik said with a noticeable sigh said, ¡°System Status¡±


    [Status]


    [Store]


    [Abilities]


    [Map]


    [Help]


    ¡°Status¡± Erik commanded.


    [Name: Erik Hartmann]


    [Level: 3]


    [Race: Human]


    [Occupation: Ares'' Champion]


    [Health:10]


    [Mana: N/A]


    [Strength:8]


    [Agility:9]


    [Stamina:7]


    [Intelligence:13]


    [Wisdom:10]


    [Leadership:13]


    [Abilities:3]


    Titles: Champion of Ares, No Mana Freak, Natural Leader, Intelligent,Enemy of Rabbits, Enemy of Wolves


    Points: 4040


    Erik was astonished that anybody even survived, ¡°Well, at least we have enough points to buy food and weapons.¡±


    ¡°Store¡± he said.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.[HQ]


    [Army]


    [Airforce]


    [Navy]


    [Logistics]


    [Research]


    ¡°Army¡±


    [Buildings]


    [Infantry]


    [Recon]


    [Tank]


    [AT]


    [Artillery]


    [AA]


    [Transport]


    [Miscellaneous]


    Since we won¡¯t be staying here after the battle everything needs to motorized, thus thought Erik.


    After an hour of deliberation and calculation he decided upon summoning three mortar teams, four half-tracks, four Puma reconnaissance vehicles, four squads of infantry, twenty half-tracks, four AA tanks, four Panther tanks and one command Tiger II tank.


    But first he had to buy a motor pool and a tank depot. After selecting them, his screen changed to a bird-eye view and ghost buildings appeared in his view to place them where he wanted.


    After that task was finished he was left with 850 points. The remaining points were reserved for food, water and fuel.


    Due to the large number of wolf corpses, the army had food to last.


    The military facilities were like spawn points, so when Erik started summoning the soldiers they appeared inside their respective spawn points.


    Even vehicles were rolling out of the depots like a conveyor belt and parking themselves in their designated parking spots.


    Soon everyone was lined up and saluting to their General. Even the survivors from the previous battle have awoken and lined up. Everyone¡¯s attention was directed at Erik.


    Erik shouted, ¡°Men, we have to win one more time to regain our freedom. We have a week to prepare for the battle! Everyone has to give their best or none of us will survive!¡±


    He said¡± Everyone will be given assignments now.¡±


    ¡°Engineer squad, you are to fix the trenches and remove the wolf corpses from the tank traps. Also you need to clear at least 500 meters of forest in every direction. Next time I don¡¯t want theme even come near my base! Understood?!!¡±


    The engineers shouted, ¡°Sir, yes Sir!¡±


    Erik turned to the mortar crews, ¡°Mortar crews, your job is to fix the markings and load you mortars onto the half-tracks. Understood?!!¡±


    The mortar crews shouted, ¡°Sir, yes Sir!¡±


    Next he turned to the remaining infantrymen and tankers, ¡°You are to help out the engineers with their job and also start cooking immediately. I have an army to feed!¡±


    The men shouted, ¡°Sir, yes Sir!¡±


    Erik was feeling pleased with himself and declared in his mind that he did everything he could.


    It was a bit chilly in the morning so he decided to head back inside.


    As he put a foot inside the headquarters there was a grumbling sound. He remembered that he hadn¡¯t eaten yet, so he turned around and shouted, ¡°And someone better bring me my goddamn breakfast soon!¡±


    After leaving those words, he slammed the door behind himself.


    -----------------------------------


    Your author here.


    It was pointed out to me that my dialogue writing style resembled japanese WN/LNs.


    Now you will acknowledge my effort to fix that. Whether I succeded or not, that''s an entirely different problem.


    There probably won''t be another chapter today since today is Champions League day.

 Chapter 8

    Chapter 8


    In future historical annals, this week would be known as ¡°The week when the forest awoke¡±.


    Erik was overseeing the progress of blasting the shit out of the forest. Every day the engineers would plant explosives and clear out strips of forest. And everything that was left over would be used to fortify the base. A small palisade sprouted around the perimeter of the base. Tanks were used to transport tree trunks to the construction sites.


    The walls were three meters high and directly overlooked the tank traps covered with barbed wires. Any enemy who wanted climb over them would get cut into pieces. And if that somehow wasn¡¯t enough, there were machine guns covering all directions and trenches dug up for cover.


    But before all of that they had to somehow first survive profuse amounts of gun fire and even tank fire.


    Erik currently owned only five tanks. One was his own personal command tank. The monstrous Tiger II also known as King Tiger. Despite weighing almost 70 tonnes it reached a road speed of 41 km/h and a cross country speed of 20 km/h with the help of its V/12 Maybach engine. And with the help of the deadly and accurate 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 gun, it could reach targets even beyond 2000 meters. It was a truly fitting vehicle for a commander.


    The other four tanks were Panthers. The Panthers were intended to counter the Soviet T/34s but now they had a new role. They weighed 45 tonnes and reached a top speed of 46 km/h.


    The main gun was a Rheinmetall-Borsig 7.5 cm KwK 42 (L/70), one of the most powerful guns of WW2 due to the large propellant charge and the long barrel, which gave it a very high muzzle velocity and excellent armour-piercing qualities even better than the Tiger''s 8.8 cm gun.


    Also there were the four AA tanks. The Flakpanzer IV "Ostwind" was a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on the Panzer IV tank. The Panzer IV''s turret was removed and replaced with an open-top, hexagonal turret which housed a 3.7 cm FlaK 43. In addition to its intended role as an anti-aircraft weapon, the fast-firing gun was highly effective against light vehicles and minor fortifications.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Then there were the four Puma reconnaissance vehicles. They were hard-hitting wheeled reconnaissance vehicles armed with a 5cm L/60 gun. With their 220 hp engines they could reach speeds of 80 and 60 km/h on and off road.


    The remaining twenty-four half-tracks were the SdKfz. 251, of which four were used as mortar platforms and the remaining twenty for transport. The Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251 half-track was an armored fighting vehicle was designed to transport soldiers into battle. The standard mounting of at least one machine gun allowed the vehicle to provide support by fire for the infantry squad once they had disembarked in battle and also they could fight the battle from inside the vehicle protected from small-arms fire.


    The infantrymen which hadn¡¯t helped out with the cooking or the forest clearing were posted on the palisade wall.


    With every passing day, the smile on Erik''s face was growing larger and larger.


    He finally started to feel like a proper general, although that thought was only a delusion of his.


    ------------------------


    Your author here.


    Today I found my doppelganger. He is called Tanaka and he is the MC of Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge. :P


    Also RMCF are in the finals. :D


    Real Life attacked me today so the chapter is short since I haven''t finished the fight yet. So tommorow will be the fight against the _______ .

 Chapter 9

    Chapter 9


    Today was the last day of the tutorial, but that didn¡¯t mean that Erik could start relaxing. On the contrary, he was tired since he couldn¡¯t sleep a wink the day before.


    The engineers had finished the construction of the fortifications and cleared as much forest as possible. The clearing had a radius of two kilometres.


    Erik was pacing back and forth, waiting for the ominous ding from the system notifying him of the enemy.


    ¡°The enemy is here!!!¡±, someone shouted.


    It was just after lunch when the enemy appeared. Erik was obviously surprised when there was no notification. The whole base awoke from its stupor and exploded into action. Soldiers manned the walls, tankers started their engines and machine gunners manned their weapons.


    Erik shouted to the sniper who discovered the enemy first, ¡°What did you see?¡±


    The sniper shouted back, ¡°Sir, it¡¯s just a sea of green.¡±


    Erik thought it was obvious since they were in a forest but despite that he asked, ¡°What is a sea of green?¡±


    ¡°No, Sir I mean they are green.¡±, the sniper shouted.


    ¡°Who is green?¡± Erik asked.


    ¡°The enemy, Sir.¡±, the sniper answered.


    ¡°What, the enemy is green?¡± Erik asked with a hint of confusion in his voice


    ¡°Yes Sir, they are little green people.¡±, the sniper answered.


    Erik climbed the palisade wall, took a soldiers¡¯ binoculars and looked at the enemy through them.


    ...


    ...


    ...


    It was the fuckin¡¯ goblins. A trope so overused that it transcends the concept of tropes themselves. The essential stepping stones for any budding teenager hero.


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


    They were sloppily marching towards his base without a care in the world as if they had already won. Erik was exasperated. He thought that even the wolves were smarter than these idiots.


    Their weapons were rusty and their leather armours looked like they were chewed on and spit out before they put them on.


    They looked more like circus freaks than soldiers. Erik was feeling confident after seeing his enemy. Usually humans would have problems with eradicating goblins since they used sword and spears but Erik was different, he had a perfect meat grinder prepared.


    While Erik was berating the enemy in his thoughts for their negligence, there was another shout from the sniper, ¡°There are more enemies coming!¡±


    Erik turned around and shouted, ¡°Where from?¡± and the sniper shouted back, ¡°Everywhere sir! We are surrounded again sir!¡±


    Erik had a single thought, then.


    SHIT.


    He was surrounded again. Ares was not a merciful god.


    -------------------


    Your author here.


    *dogeza* (_ _)


    I apologize for the short chapter today, but today was just not my day. My head is killing me, a runny nose and my sinuses are clogged, a perfect trifecta.


    Depending on my state, there may or may not be a chapter tommorrow, but I already planned out the action sequences so there''s that. It will be explosive and chaotic with plenty of gore, that''s a promise.

 Chapter 10

    Chapter 10


    The four reckless goblin armies were led by four slightly less retarded High Goblins. High goblins were not a unique race.


    They were a breed of goblins that typically lead goblin tribes. The purest brood for the breed were the leaders of goblin tribes, but most goblins had within them a trace of this slightly more powerful lineage. Most high goblins were of some sort of evil alignment. Lawful evil goblins lived among humans while chaotic evil and neutral evil goblins tended to lead tribes. When befriended by someone of a good alignment, high goblins emulated their new friend shifting their alignment towards good, overtime.


    The sniper noticed these four individuals and aimed his rifle at one of them.


    Bang!


    The bullet broke the sound barrier but the bullet arrived before the sound. It penetrated a head belonging to a high goblin and turned it into meat patty.


    Even before the retard army arrived they¡¯ve lost one of their smartest retards.


    But the goblins weren¡¯t deterred by such trifling matters since they didn¡¯t even notice that the goblin was dead. They were completely oblivious. Erik saw through the binoculars the falling goblin and as he watched the goblins not giving a single fuck that their commander died made him even more agitated.


    He was cursing Ares under his breath since the goblins arrived. Naturally those remarks didn¡¯t escape Ares¡¯ and his friends¡¯ attention since they were gods. Suffice to say, Ares lost a lot of face that day because no one dared to curse him since the beginning of time.


    Erik went where no man has gone before.


    Erik turned to the signal officer who was following him around and gave out orders, ¡°Open the gates! Tanks, roll out!¡±. The mighty Maybach engines roared to life while the gates were being opened. Turrets were aligned towards the front of the tank. The commanders were giving out orders while manning their MG42s.


    When the gates finally opened, the four Panther tanks exited the base and took position right in front of their respective gates blocking entry. The goblins couldn¡¯t attack the gates directly since the tanks were in the way.


    Erik gave out another order, ¡°Mortar teams! Prepare to fire when the armies reach the one 1.5 kilometre mark. Today we use white phosphorus rounds!¡±


    The goblins definitely wouldn¡¯t expect to burn as if they were in hell, if they were not complete idiots. The four mortar teams quickly calibrated their trajectories and prepared themselves for battle.


    Everyone was as ready as they could be. The goblins would rue the day they tried to play wargames with Erik.


    The marching idiot armies were slow as snails; the soldiers were becoming annoyed that their enemy wasn¡¯t fast enough.


    When the goblins arrived at two kilometres there was a bang and another high goblin fell, never to rise again.


    At 1.7 kilometres there was another bang and again a high goblin had his head turn into meat patty.


    When the first goblin soldier stepped on the stone marking 1.5 kilometres, three things happened.


    One, the sniper sounded out again and the final high goblin died, unnoticed by his dense companions.


    Two, thuds were heard inside the base and mortar rounds filled with white phosphorus streaked across the sky. The rounds also had VT proximity fuses, one of the most important innovations in warfare at the time of world war two, so rounds could explode in air bursts.


    A couple of moments later and the rounds arrived above the goblins¡¯ heads. Then there were explosions. The goblins were stunned by the sound of the explosions. They were directly frozen stupid. They watched as if transfixed the incandescent particles falling like beautiful snowflakes, only they were out to turn the goblins into ashes. When the first ¡°snowflakes touched the goblins there was a moment of absolute silence. After that moment, everything fell into chaos. The particles attached themselves to the goblins¡¯ bodies and started to consume their bodies. The goblins shrieked and screamed. They rolled on the ground but white phosphorus burns until it is no more. Since the goblins had small statures and generally had weak bodies the particles burned straight through their bodies. Some goblins only inhaled fumes but even they could not evade death.


    Three, the 7.5 cm KwK 42 (L/70) guns fired at the goblin army. The guns fired their AP rounds at the first row of the goblins to check the effect. The rounds tore through the goblins¡¯ ranks all the way to the last row. The goblins suddenly had a line-shaped holes in their armies. The AP rounds were deemed not cost effective enough so they switched to HE rounds. They were obviously more effective.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.The goblin soldiers directly exploded into bloody mists covering the clearing in crimson.


    General pandemonium it was. Bu the goblins were tenacious fuckers. The surviving goblins rushed towards the walls at break-neck speeds since they couldn¡¯t go back and anywhere else was better than inside the cloud of white phosphorus.


    They ran straight towards into the remains of the minefields. There were some unexploded mine remaining and some unlucky goblins met their maker.


    This was a first for the goblins. They didn¡¯t know what was happening, only that the world had come to an end. The sky burned and the ground wanted to swallow them.


    Erik almost pitied the poor fools (Mr. T, anyone?), but he was not the same person from before.


    There wasn¡¯t much time for him to cultivate himself but this was a good enough start.


    The goblins rushed towards the walls only to be met with gunfire. The soldiers manning the walls opened fire when the goblins stepped past the 600-meter mark. The STG44s and the tank commanders¡¯ MG42s spat hot lead at the little green men. Soon they fell like sacks of potato only they were full of holes, not potatoes.


    The goblins¡¯ army was then cut in two halves, one dead, one alive. Everything that was small, green and ugly was shot on sight.


    The goblins finally reached the gates but they were blocked by tanks. The tanks were identified as threats but how could a goblin fathom that spear and swords don¡¯t work against tanks. The tank commanders closed their hatches and waited for the goblin storm to pass. The idiotic goblins were left alone to their futile attempts at stabbing the tanks to death.


    The other goblins tried to climb the walls but they got entangled by the barbed wire. They were cut in pieces while other goblins tried to step on them, pushing them faster to their death. The goblins met a hail of gunfire coming at them from the walls. The soldiers were shooting, throwing grenades and generally killing the fuck out of the goblins.


    Also the mortar teams abandoned their halftracks and manned the walls.


    At the start of the battle Erik took shelter inside his Tiger tank. There was no need for more orders since nobody was going anywhere but heaven and hell.


    The goblins made bloody mountains made out of corpses at the base of the walls. When the goblins stacked to the top of the wall they had enough corpse-ladders to climb the walls. They tried to stab their human enemies but they were given no chance to do so.


    When Erik saw that he immediately called for a retreat, ¡°Retreat to the halftracks and trenches Immediately!¡±.


    The order came through and everyone found their assigned positions, some inside vehicles, some inside trenches.


    The halftracks could transport ten soldiers each and had a MG42 to provide support. Now they were full of soldiers who were shooting at goblins.


    The goblins climbed over the walls and stumbled into the base only to be met with copious amounts of lead.


    The goblins were using the zerg rush tactics but at the end they hadn¡¯t had enough bodies to throw at the humans. When the last goblin died, the base was half- covered in little, green corpses.


    Miraculously not a single soldier died. But only in this world it would be considered miraculous since humans on Earth excelled at killing their own kind. Who knew what races lived on this continent.


    The tutorial was over. The battles were won and Erik now had plenty of points.


    Erik couldn¡¯t figure out if he was a lucky or an unlucky person but he knew his life from now would be filled with excitement, blood, guts and iron.


    --------------------------------------------------


    You author here.


    Yeah, finally the tutorial is over. Finally got better enough to finish the damn chapter.


    Anyways, now I''m going to need a small hiatus for a couple of reasons.


    #1 Need to flesh out the backstory, world geography, also future companions( only erik will be human) etc...


    IF you have any BRIGHT IDEAS please comment below !


    #2 I''m currently hooked on Korean tv series


    #3 Stellaris just launched! I need to conquer the galaxy at least once, also thinking this story could go to space and perhaps other dimensions(yes, I''m a megalomanic who needs his power trip and with world domination on his bucket list)!


    So I''m going to go on a short hiatus, a week or two tops. I will definitely return, since I won''t have anything better to do then.


    BTW, still no dragons.


    Also I have already some plot points written and a companion for Erik. So my question is. Do you want to know who is going to be his first companion? :D

 Chapter 11

    Chapter 11


    Immediately after the battle, Erik fainted due to exhaustion. His soldiers brought him inside the headquarters and left him there under guard. He slept like a baby with nothing to worry about for the first time since he came to this world. But that only lasted about eight hours or so.


    Erik woke up in the middle of the night. He found himself lying on a couple of sandbags piled up instead of a bed and a pillow. It was relatively bright due to the moonlight. And the system notifications.


    Erik lazily opened the system and started reading.


    [Tutorial cleared.]


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have new title(s)]


    [8004 Goblin horde cleared.]


    Erik was now level five and got a new title Enemy of Goblins. Also he had a massive amount of points, specifically 40046.


    Erik rubbed his eyes to check if he was hallucinating. He wasn¡¯t, but after reading the next notification his mood abruptly darkened.


    [Hey there, my little champion. It seems that you are still alive. Good for you, it seems you will live to fight another day. Your next quest, kekeke, is to establish a new base. There are some nice islands to the west with your name on them. Ah, also be wary of your new neighbours. They are quite a haughty bunch I hear, kekeke. I will be watching, so don¡¯t disappoint me. ¨C Your most awesome god of war, Ares.]


    The mighty human general named Erik was thrown instantly into depression since his sworn enemy and local asshole god Ares wasn¡¯t even in this plane of existence.


    Erik was annoyed to the maximum but couldn¡¯t do anything. So, he stopped thinking about his impossible revenge and started contemplating his future.


    He was especially worried about his so-called neighbours. If Ares thought they were haughty, and he was a god, who could they be.


    But, as usual, he had no credible information on anything vital. He was like a bumbling child in the dark trying not to stub his toes on furniture.


    Since it was still dark, he had nothing to do. He laid on his makeshift bed and fiddled with the system menu until it was dawn.


    When the sun appeared above the horizon, Erik couldn¡¯t wait anymore. As far as he was concerned, he wanted to get on with his adventure as soon as possible.


    He dragged himself out of the bed and started for the outside. The soldier guarding the stairs was startled when he saw Erik coming down and hastily saluted while Erik only gave a nod in his direction.


    When Erik stepped outside, he saw little green mountains made up of little green men.  A couple of soldiers were still cleaning up the battlefield, removing the goblin corpses. The ground was steeped in blood and took on a red hue. If it wasn¡¯t for the hundreds of men snoring away in a corner, one would think this was a graveyard.


    Erik went to search for the engineers and found them all piled up like sardines next to each other.


    He lightly kicked them awake. With a few murmurs and a couple of curses they awoke to find their general staring at them. They blankly stared at him for a moment and then realization dawned upon them.


    Faster than Flash, they shot up and almost deafened Erik, ¡°General!¡±. That shout coincidentally woke up everyone in the vicinity, which meant the whole base.


    Erik now found himself being stared at by a couple hundred pairs of eyes. His anxiety shot up even faster than the speed at which the soldiers woke up.


    He sighed in his heart and spoke, ¡°We won!¡±


    For a moment everyone just stared at Erik in a mute silence, but when they comprehended the meaning behind the words the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. If anyone was still sleepy, they weren¡¯t now.


    Erik gave them a moment of satisfaction. But this moment couldn¡¯t last forever. Erik put up his hand and then there was only silence again.


    ¡°We won, but this isn¡¯t the end, on the contrary, this is just the beginning. There is a whole world out there for the taking. It doesn¡¯t belong to us but we will take it anyways. That¡¯s what conquerors do. Everyone prepare yourselves, we march west today. I don¡¯t know for how long or how far but to the west lies our new home.¡±, Erik said with a hint of annoyance.


    Erik commanded, ¡°Receive your orders!¡±


    Everyone in unison shouted back, ¡°Sir, yes Sir!¡±


    ¡°Engineers, you are to clear me a path through this forest as straight as possible and wide enough for the tanks to pass through.¡±, Erik commanded.


    ¡°Everyone else, provide support to the engineers so that we can leave this shitty forest as soon as possible. Also pack up everything that can be transported. And someone better start cooking real soon some real food, I¡¯m sick and tired of wolf meat.¡±


    Everyone in unison with bright smiles on their faces shouted back, ¡°Sir, yes Sir!¡±


    Erik was finally living the life or what passed for life since he was a shut-in with zero ambition and motivation.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    After his glorious speech, he summoned twenty transport trucks. They were to be filled with ammunition, food, fuel, everything and everyone needed to supply his army.


    His ability to act as a spawn point was formidable but it had a significant drawback. It required him to manually summon everything and if he was ambushed he would die without summoning anything in time.


    So there was only one way to mitigate that weakness and that was to summon everything before the fight even started.


    Throughout the next week the pitiful forest was violated again. Erik even summoned another squad of engineers because progress was too slow. The forest rumbled and thundered. Trees flew everywhere, unlucky animals got caught in the explosions. It was anything but peaceful. The power of humanity was at its full display blowing shit up.


    The sniper was sent to scout ahead of the engineers. He blended into his surroundings and watched for possible enemies as well becoming a prolific hunter of animals with too much courage or curiosity.


    It took them a whole month to clear a path through the forest. Finally, the day when they could leave this godforsaken forest came.


    It was a sunny day, around noon. Erik was living it up these days, since he only had to listen to reports once a day when the engineers came back to the base.


    But today, the whole army was lined up in front of him and waiting for his awesome speech.


    Erik could barely contain his excitement so to his embarrassment his voice cracked, ¡°Everyone, today is the day! We have cleared a path to the outside! We can finally leave this forest!¡±


    Erik¡¯s army was a bit of a joke since he was the only officer. He held a rank equivalent to Generalissimo while everyone else were privates. It was fortunate that the army wasn¡¯t too big to manage properly.


    But when Erik finally noticed that small detail, it was already the day when they were leaving for the outside world.


    And hastily that day, the whole command structure for the land army popped into existence. Erik summoned everyone from generals to privates. Bureaucracy prospered.


    There was a proper command chain but since the army was too small it was almost pointless. He spent 10000 points in one go for minimal benefits.


    But at least Erik had a new friend or subordinate at least. Erik was thrilled since he could delegate everything to him. His dubious orders would now be interpreted by a person who actually knew what he was doing. His new Field Marshal who now commanded his army was named Alan Brooke.


    So the first order given to him was to clean up the base and bury as much evidence as possible.


    Everything that could not be taken with them was torched and squashed with tank tracks. The palisade walls were set on fire and the trenches were filled up with dirt and little green corpses.


    The remaining tank traps and barbed wire were also buried. If somebody came later, he would only field red painted dirt and charred wood.


    The second order given was to march west.


    But before they could they had to settle everyone so Erik had to summon even more transport trucks. Officers with nothing to do were stuffed into them like sardines.


    Everyone boarded their assigned vehicles. Engines roared to life. Erik shouted with glee in his voice and a smile on his face, ¡°Depart!¡±


    To the front and back there were Pumas, in the middle of the convoy were the transport trucks . Interspersed among the trucks were the half-tracks, tanks and in the dead centre was Erik inside of his Tiger II.


    They slowly advanced through the forest via the path cleared by engineers. The trees loomed over their heads with their ancientness. Lucky for Erik, that the trees had plenty of space between each other due to natural selection.


    They needed only one day to traverse the path while in comparison they needed a month to clear everything in their path.


    The forest was filled with engine sounds and all the animals in the vicinity were scared witless. For kilometres there was none courageous enough to approach Erik¡¯s army.


    The march was utterly uneventful but everyone was alert since no one knew when something could happen in this world that they have no knowledge of.


    Everything was fine until the convoy left the forest.


    ¡­


    ¡­


    ¡­


    They were followed.


    -----------------


    Your author here.


    I had a shitty week. Suffice to say, I visited my dentist. During work hours.


    Anyways, Erik finally left the shitty forest with the shitty trees. And a nice cliff to annoy you.


    Also, it wouldn''t kill you to comment,rate or review this story. Do something.


    Read Lest Darkness Fall by L.Sprague de Camp this week (historian,transported to 6th century rome, awesome story)


    Still on hiatus though, this is just me being a merciful god :) Still no dragons.

 Elven Interlude

    Elven Interlude


    Unbeknownst to Erik, his army wasn¡¯t the only, albeit temporary, inhabitant of the forest.


    The forest was located in the western part of the Astrira continent which was located in the world of Valeria. The huge forest which stretched from the top of the continent to the bottom of it was under the protection of the elves.


    After the Exodus most of the elves made the forest their home for countless centuries. They lived Isolated from the rest of the continent in relative peace interspersed with occasional conflicts with human slavers and the ever-industrious dwarfs. There were not many who could claim that they walked away after entering the forest.


    But all of that changed with Erik¡¯s arrival. The elves were baffled by the strange events happening in the forest. First there were the rabbits, then the wolves and finally the goblins each one being stranger than the former.


    In the elvish capital Ost-in-Edhil the King of the Elves had his hands full with nonsensical reports of massive rabbit armies followed by wolves and goblins. His advisors were bickering amongst each other. Some wanted to exterminate the perceived enemy while others wanted to hunker down and ignore the outside world.


    While the elves were quarrelling the armies cleanly bypassed every elvish village in an orderly fashion. When the King received reports about that he was for a moment relieved but soon enough a disconcerting though occurred to him ¡°If we weren¡¯t the targets, who was?¡±.


    When the King again sat down with his advisors to discuss what to do next, everyone was unanimous. They would do nothing and hope that the unknown enemies would mutually destroy each other.


    But of course, the elves were not a collectivist society. They prided themselves most on their nobleness and their arcane knowledge. It was safe to assume that some elves would disobey their orders due to their hubris or ignorance.


    But Lhaindir was governed by neither of those. His motivation was of the most dangerous kind.


    Curiosity.


    Even in the days of childish games and mock sword fights with sticks plucked from the forest floor Lhaindir knew he was different than the other youths his age. He had no interest in rough housing or wrestling and fighting like the other youths his age quite the contrary actually he liked to discover the world around himself, plunge into the unknown and uncover the buried past. Most of his childhood was spent inside the Royal Library learning magic and history since he was a recognized genius among the new generation of elves. He had no time to be like his heroic ancestors protecting elven kind but if there was an adventure to be had you could count on Lhaindir being a part of it. Due to his adventurous spirit he led more or less a solitary life with most of his acquaintances being librarians.


    So, when Lhaindir disappeared no one noticed for quite some time. But at that time even Lhaindir himself didn¡¯t know that he would embark upon the greatest adventure of his life that would take him across Valeria and beyond.


    When Lhaindir heard about the strange happenings in the forest, his first thought was ¡°A new adventure!¡±. He immediately went home, packed everything up and set out at dawn. He followed the tracks belonging to the rabbit army for a week. He came just in time to see a human bawling his eyes out among myriads of tiny rabbit corpses. Suffice to say, Lhaindir was thoroughly confused by the sight in his view.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    And then everything changed for Lhaindir. The human summoned more humans with no visible preparations at all. When Lhaindir saw that, he was astonished since even elves couldn¡¯t summon every time they wanted something.


    But what happened after gave Lhaindir the biggest shock in his life.


    After the rabbits came the wolves but they perished with relative ease. Lhaindir risked his life just to satisfy his curiosity. He had to pull back a little since the humans were destroying the forest. His mouth twitched in annoyance due to the destruction but his curiosity won in the end. He had too many questions to ask but he didn¡¯t know if the humans would let him live if he showed himself to them. It was the greatest dilemma of his life. Safety or satisfaction.


    The day he finally decided to satisfy his curiosity the goblins came. Lhaindir watched the battle with rapt attention. He watched with abject horror the horrific scene in front of him. Screams and explosion everywhere where the eye could see. The goblin army was annihilated. After the deed was done, only little green corpses remained.


    Throughout the month after the battle Lhaindir observed the human army with more caution since he wasn¡¯t completely sure if he could run away successfully if he was discovered.


    When the humans finally boarded their metal chariots and left, Lhaindir went to explore the remains of the base. But there was nothing of importance since everything was torched and demolished leaving nothing useful.


    But Lhaindir wasn¡¯t discouraged since he had already made a decision before. There was an adventure waiting for him and he wouldn¡¯t shy away from it.


    Lhaindir followed the humans to the edge of the forest. This was his first time leaving the forest but due to his almost child-like focus on the shiny army he was completely oblivious to his surroundings.


    He followed behind the army, which was considerably easy since they were thundering along the way. All animals were scared away.


    Due to the ¡°inhuman¡± speed at which the convoy travelled Lhaindir had to strengthen his body with magic to keep up but that put a strain on his body.


    And on one fateful day, Lhaindir due to exhaustion made a mistake which was part his own fault and part Erik¡¯s.


    It seemed that Velaria¡¯s soil wasn¡¯t accustomed to tanks. While Lhaindir was sneaking the ground suddenly caved in and he fell straight down. His scream carried far due to the acoustics of the cave and a commander observing the surroundings from his Puma heard it. It was instantly forwarded up the chain of command. Five minutes later there was a lone elf with a broken leg surrounded by humans.


    When Erik came to the scene, oblivious to the tension in the air, the first thing he blurted out was, ¡°Elf?¡±


    -------------------------------------------


    Your author here.


    Yeah I''m more or less back.


    The healthcare system in this country is abysmal. I still need to go through check-ups for my sinuses. My head feels like a balloon ready to pop.


    Anyways, since I''m a big fan of Tom Clancy, I''m gonna model my commandos on Rainbow Six. So if you want to, you can suggest a character or two.


    Still no dragons :D

 Chapter 12

    Chapter 12


    One elf surrounded by humans. All gazed upon him like he was a rare animal. While Erik and Lhaindir were staring at each other the weather suddenly worsened. The sky was covered by fast-forming dark clouds, day turned into night but no rain came with the clouds.


    The world stilled for a moment and then there was a thunderous bang. Lightning flashed straight from the heavens to the ground but unfortunately someone was in the way and that someone was Erik.


    Before anyone could react lightning struck his head. The unlucky Erik now had dishevelled hair and his uniform was ripped and charred in many places. The mighty general turned beggar in a mere flash. The clouds dispersed and night reverted to day like nothing happened.


    His subordinates were rooted in shock until someone started screaming, ¡°Medic!!! Medic!!!¡±.


    The medics soon arrived at scene, immediately checking Erik¡¯s vital signs for irregularities but even after checking they couldn¡¯t find anything wrong with him even the normal after-effects after getting struck by lightning weren¡¯t present. This baffled everyone at the scene, was their general impervious to lightning?


    Coincidentally, Erik received a notification the same moment he was struck. When Erik finally awoke from his lightning induced stupor the first thing he did was to read the notification.


    [My champion Erik, we don¡¯t have the patience to watch you learn languages, consider that lightning a gift of mine. You can now understand all languages. Also about that gutsy Elf who followed you, either bring him into the fold or kill him. -Your most awesome God of War, Ares]


    Naturally, Erik was incensed after comprehending the content of the message. He jumped up to his feet and started screaming all profanities he knew of towards the sky. On Earth he would have been characterized as a harmless lunatic but on Valeria he was a dangerous madman since the gods were real.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Naturally Ares couldn¡¯t hold back and another lightning bolt came from the heavens to strike Erik. Suffice to say, Erik directly fainted. Everyone present on the scene were scared witless. They all had a single thought,¡± Is this revenge?¡±.


    Due to having had his body strengthened Erik turned into a perfect sandbag for Ares, a mere lightning bolt could only stun him for a short while.


    When Erik opened his eyes again, he found a message waiting for him.


    [Now, now let¡¯s not be feisty. We wouldn¡¯t want lightning to strike again, would we now? Now get on with your ¡°quest¡±. WE ARE BORED. -Your most benevolent God of War Ares]


    Erik literally had the fear of god struck into him. This time around, he could only mumble under his breath.


    When Erik finally got up and proclaimed that he was fine, everyone visibly relaxed. But the next words from Erik¡¯s mouth raised the tension up again.


    Erik turned to the elf lying on the ground and with a voice that could freeze hell ten times over asked, ¡°Why were you following us?¡±


    The elf named Lhaindir was frightened to death by Erik¡¯s question. Due to the fantastical events happening in front of him that ignited his curiosity he completely forgot that he was surrounded by humans.


    He was in a life or death situation but the only thought he had was ¡°Curiosity killed the elf.¡±.


    ------------------------------


    Your author here.


    Today we have a shorter than usual chapter because:


    a)it has a nice ending


    b) the word count is 555


    c) basically too lazy to continue today


    Anyways, you are out of luck(some of you won''t be) since on May 31st the Blood and Wine DLC for Witcher 3 comes. I''ll be playing the shit out of that :D also on D-day 6th of June Hearts of Iron IV comes out. I''ll be playing the shit out of that too :D


    So be patient as as Tokugawa Ieyasu was hahah.

 Chapter 13

    Chapter 13


    Lhaindirs¡¯ soul almost flew out so it was understandable that he couldn¡¯t even open his mouth for a good moment. When he finally gathered enough courage to speak, he immediately destroyed all the wariness Erik had of him, with a voice that could almost be described as angelic and what passed for elven puppy eyes on Valeria, Lhaindir spoke, ¡°Tt- his hahaha big brother I was curious, you can¡¯t blame me for that, can you?¡±


    Erik had the urge to vomit blood as he listened to the elf trying to endear himself to him, just like the many villains in xianxias which he read from time to time in his spare time. He was completely nonplussed by this, well, child in front of him.


    Erik narrowed his eyes and said, ¡°Who are you calling big brother, this is the first time we met. I heard elves have long lifespans, how old are you then?


    Lhaindir replied by devastating Eriks¡¯ mental faculties completely, ¡°Hahah this, I just became an adult recently. I think that¡¯s about 150 human years old, I¡¯m not quite sure.¡±


    Naturally Erik blew a gasket the second he heard the number which was eight times his own age¡± Mother***, you¡­, you¡­ WHO ARE YOU CALLING BIG BROTHER, FU**, you are old enough to be my goddamn ancestor and yet you act like this? This, this¡­ AH! I can¡¯t deal with this¡±


    Erik was visibly disappointed with this elf. In Eriks¡¯ mind the elves have dropped a couple of notches down on his list of races to meet in the future.


    After his chest stopped heaving from frustration, Erik asked, ¡°Fine, let¡¯s say you were curious. You followed behind us and then what?¡±


    ¡°Eeeh, big brother what do you mean? Lhaindir asked innocently with a bit of puzzlement in his eyes.


    Erik facepalmed, ¡°THIS, YOU, AH! Fine, big brother it is, just answer the damn question. Don¡¯t tell me you just planned on following us?


    ¡°Hehehe¡± Lhaindir laughed awkwardly which incensed Erik greatly. The elves¡¯ image and reputation of noble existences was completely shattered that day.


    After another couple of palms to the face, Erik finally gave up on questioning the elf. It was clear to him that this person, even though he was of different species, was definitely some kind of single-minded idiot with no regards to personal safety.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    A couple of thought later Erik finally popped the question, ¡°So, listen LITTLE BROTHER. You have two choices now, either you come with us or you will cease to exist today. I know it seems like an easy choice but it only appears so for I bring only war with me. No one will be spared from it, be they human, dwarwen, beastmen, elven, demons and whatever or whoever else existed on this planet. One day you may be forced to kill your own brethren. Can you live with that?¡±


    After Lhaindir heard that, he couldn¡¯t put up with his innocent fa?ade anymore. This was a heavy matter since war never changes. It brings change, pain and suffering altogether. With his brows knitted, he deliberated between his curiosity and morality. In the end curiosity won, he thought what does an elf or two even matter. He wanted to know what this young man who claims to bring war is up to. He had to know for friends are much better than foes at betrayal.


    With a determined look in his eyes he spoke, ¡°I am able. I will follow you.¡±


    But nobody knew the future and neither did the future Lhaindir the ¡°Demonic Angel¡±.


    ----------------------------------------------------


    Your author here,


    Just a lull between games, not back yet. Finally started playing witcher( had to start all over again due to reasons),


    I hope you didn''t forget me hah, I''m still alive


    my health is still shit though, I even got sick yesterday, I guess being a neet isn''t good for you health, obviously :P


    anyways that''s pretty much it.


    So, comment, rate , review, you can even donate if you are insane :P


    What do you think of our 150 year old little brother? If you have any suggestions for future companions , comment below :D


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


    https://www.patreon.com/LoneWanderer23?ty=h</a>

 Chapter 14

    Chapter 14


    Erik deeply sighed in relief after hearing Lhaindir¡¯s answer. He felt relief due to not needing to extinguish a life unnecessarily.


    Finally, he spoke, ¡°Great, now since the unpleasant things are behind us we should continue our journey once more.¡±


    Erik thought for a moment and asked¡± Where is my Field Marsh-?¡±. Even before he could finish his question, a voice sounded out behind him, ¡°Field Marshal Alan Brooke reporting Sir!¡±


    Erik turned around and came face to face with the man radiating a warrior aura which only fuelled Erik¡¯s insecurities and made him pale in comparison, completely overshadowing him in the process.


    After being woken up from his momentary stupor by a questioning voice, ¡°Sir?¡± Erik finally came to his senses and commanded while glancing back at Lhaindir,¡± Since this one will travel with us from now on, find someone to fix his leg. Take care of him as a honoured guest, that will be enough. We¡¯ll rest here for a hour here since we already stopped. Set up a defensive formation and post sentries. That will be all.¡±


    With a crisp voice, a reply came back instantly, ¡°Yes Sir!¡±.


    Erik turned around to face Lhaindir while pointing at the medics, ¡°These people will take care of you so behave yourself and let them do their job.¡±


    The medics obliged and laid out Lhaindir on a stretcher meanwhile the Field Marshal began assigning tasks to the idle soldiers who came to see what happened.


    Erik summoned a chair for himself and watched everyone go about their duties. The vehicles formed a circle surrounding the army. In the centre, the cooks started their preparations.


    Soon enough the smell of tasty food permeated the camp. Erik who fell asleep out of boredom awoke due to the aroma present in the air.


    A cook came soon after presenting Erik with a plate full of food. Erik with the help of the system summoned tables, chairs, cutlery and everything else needed for everyone present.


    The logistics menu was almighty. Everything that an army needed could be bought for an appropriate amount of points.


    As Erik was eating with his direct subordinates consisting of the field marshal Alan Brooke, air marshal Arthur Harris and fleet admiral Andrew Cunningham, discussing the future, he spotted an elf walking towards them.


    With his broken leg in a splint and crutches under his arms the elf cut a sorry figure. But his eyes darted everywhere, soaking in the view around him.


    Actually, this was Lhaindirs¡¯ first contact with humans besides books and brief encounters. Unfortunately, he was doomed to misunderstand since these humans weren¡¯t from Valeria at all.


    But, nonetheless his curiosity was piqued and for him that was the most important thing.


    And also the soldiers casted curious glances at him for he was the first elf they have met.


    At the table where Erik was sitting a chair appeared. Erik waved and shouted,¡± Hey, come over here.¡±


    Lhaindir dragged himself over and sat down in the chair opposite Erik. A bowl of soup and a plate full of meat was soon placed in front of him. Since elves lived in forests, they were all more or less vegetarians. They lived off of the fruits of the forests. But that didn¡¯t mean they couldn¡¯t eat meat. And Lhaindir was famished since the convoy travelled too fast for him to have time to rest.


    Even though Lhaindir was considered a genius, even he couldn¡¯t figure out how to use cutlery immediately since elves used magic while magic instead of tools and as a form of magic control training.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    But Lhaindir was a quick study and he liked discovering new things so he quickly caught on by observing his human counterparts.


    After everyone had finished eating at their table, Erik asked the young elf, ¡°As a matter of fact, I haven¡¯t asked what is your name?¡±


    The elf replied with a mischievous smile, ¡°Lhaindir is my name, but you can call me little brother, big brother.¡±


    Erik gave up on correcting the ¡°young¡± elf on the ways of seniority. He sighed and followed with another question, ¡°Fine, next question then. Since you can be considered a native of these parts, could you tell us more about them?¡±


    Lhaindir with fiery eyes of curiosity asked, ¡°Eeeeh, big brother where do you come from? I thought everyone knew that us Elves inhabited the Great Forest. I noticed that you were heading to the west, but I don¡¯t know of anything important that is in that direction. The Elves live on the westernmost part of Astrira while all the other races live east of us. I have met some humans before but none like you.¡±


    Erik replied while awkwardly scratching his head, ¡°Hahah, this, well we come from a place (galaxy :P) far far away. This is our first time coming to these lands.¡±


    The elf positively beamed at these words and like a machine produced questions,¡± How do you get there? Are there any elves or only humans? Do you have fun things there? Do you have libraries? Can I come visit?¡±


    With his spittle flying everywhere, Lhaindir fired off questions without rest. Erik could only blankly stare at him since he lost track of the number of questions he was being asked at the same time.


    Luckily a cook came and served dessert, interrupting Lhaindir at the same time. A sweet aroma instantly filled the table.


    Everyone grabbed a bite, except for the young elf. Erik gave him a puzzled look and inquired,¡± Why aren¡¯t you eating?¡±


    Lhaindir replied back with a question, ¡°What is this?¡± He was met with astonished looks from everyone.


    Erik asked with wonder in his voice,¡± Eh, you, you didn¡¯t eat this before? I mean, EVERYONE ate pancakes at least once in their life.¡±


    The elf took a bite and exclaimed, ¡°So sweet! Are all pancakes like this?¡± Erik replied, ¡°No, it depends on what they are filled with. These are filled with chocolate.¡±


    And then the young elf dropped a nuclear bomb, ¡°What is chocolate?¡±


    The camp instantly got quiet, with only the whisperings of people, who didn¡¯t hear but were curious, asking.


    Erik with a mix of pity and amazement asked,¡± You haven¡¯t eaten chocolate before? Oh my, that is just unbelievable.¡±


    Erik thought to himself, What kind of world was I sent to? They don¡¯t even have chocolate! What the hell! How will I survive with my sweet tooth? I want to go home


    On that day, our hero acquired his very own Messiah complex, wowing to bring the joy of chocolate to all corners of the world.


    --------------------------------------------


    Your author here,


    Nothing worth mentioning happened


    Rate,donate,review do as you please. I need me some stars!


    -------------------------------------------


    https://www.patreon.com/LoneWanderer23?ty=h</a>

 Chapter 15

    Chapter 15


    After break time was over, everything was packed up loaded onto trucks. Afterwards everyone boarded their designated vehicles but for one person.


    Erik relinquished his commander¡¯s seat to his Field Marshal, opting to ride with Lhaindir. He summoned a Willis Jeep and ordered a nearby soldier to drive it.


    Engines roared to life, just waiting for the order to begin the journey. Over the roaring, Erik picked up a Handie-Talkie SCR536 AM from the soldier and ordered, ¡°Roll out!¡±


    The convoy departed and left their resting place in dust. Fortunately, they weren¡¯t followed this time They travelled for two days with short breaks from time to time until they could travel no more.


    Because there was nowhere else to go, for in front of them laid only the vast ocean.


    Erik disembarked from the Jeep and with Lhaindir in tow walked towards the shore.


    Erik immensely enjoyed the light breeze blowing while looking towards the horizon with his hands behind his back. For a moment he looked like different person, proud and aloof as if worldly matters had no impact upon him. Unfortunately, looks were deceiving.


    It was around noon when they arrived, a perfect time for a break.


    The former sandy beach was soon transformed into a staging point for exploration. Erik¡¯s goal laid somewhere to the west but Ares certainly didn¡¯t make thing easy with his vague instructions.


    Erik convened a meeting consisting of the most senior military personnel in his forces. A young elf was also present.


    It sounded magnificent, but it was just five people chatting by the beach.


    Erik turned to Lhaindir and asked, ¡°Do you know the lay of the land beyond the horizon? Have the elves ever been there before? Does anyone live there?¡±


    Lhaindir replied, ¡°Only in legends can one find information about such things. I remember that after the Exodus, not many records were left, only oral traditions remained. I was quite lucky to hear about a few of these. Most of them spoke about a time when all the races were living together peacefully but one-day calamity struck, forcing everyone to flee for their lives. After the calamity was the Exodus but unfortunately there are no survivors of the Exodus since it happened so long ago.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.Because of that, nobody believes that such a place even existed. My dream was to find it one day but nobody wanted to support my expedition. Everyone said I was delusional, that elves couldn¡¯t have lived together with those ignoble races.¡±


    Erik asked, ¡°So basically, we have no idea what to expect? It seems that it¡¯s my fate is filled with suffering and even more suffering. Then, do you at least know anything about the creatures inhabiting the ocean? I presume there are such creatures, right?¡±


    Lhaindir replied with glee in his voice since he could finally show off his knowledge, ¡°Naturally, there are many beings living in the ocean. From small fishes to giant turtles. In fact, some even say that Astrira itself lies on the back of a giant turtle.¡±


    Erik as a modern man with a consciousness influenced by science dismissed the notion of a giant turtle instantly, but in fact this was a fantasy world where anything was possible. A giant turtle wouldn¡¯t have been anything unusual in the world of Valeria where the power called ¡°magic¡± had a hand in evolution.


    Erik asked, ¡°So are there any dangerous species that we have to look out for?¡± Lhaindir replied, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that is a very hard question to answer, since as an Elf I haven¡¯t needed to travel the seas before and as far as I know all who set out to sea have never returned.¡±


    Erik sighed, it seemed they will have to go in blind. The difficulty setting on his life turned game was SERIOUS. (don¡¯t get the reference? http://i.imgur.com/OO2xlKr.jpg</a>)


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------


    Your author here,


    I need to do some paperwork for college so chapters will be irregular( as if they were regular be4)


    That''s it from me.


    Signing out!


    P.S. rate the story once in a while, it''s kinda ridiculous that I have more followers than ratings


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