Murlough winced slightly, but nodded. "I will do what I can, but I would prefer not to be a farmer." He said. I assured him that he wouldn't be, at least not for long. Once I amassed enough food and flesh to make and maintain a Weaver populace, this whole thing would go much more smoothly.
Murlough went to leave, but stopped and turned around. "Oh, and Donovan? Thank you, milord. For the stat boosts, and especially a chance at life." Then he was off, making for a more or less unoccupied section of the clearing.
"One more thing, and then I can go." I muttered to myself as I wandered over to the corpse pile, where my large spider slept. I would name him eventually, but I hadn't thought of a good enough one for him yet.
"Any scavengers yet?" I asked the massive thing. It woke up and stretched, standing to full height at about nine feet.
"None... have... dared."
"Good." I felt out toward the pile, searching for the parts I'd need to make a Weaver. I quickly found them, and watched as they pieced themselves together before my eyes. By the time it finished, I had attracted a small crowd.
"What are you making?" A female Gruff spoke up, only to have a Crafter gently shush her.
"You're witnessing the creation of life, Fria. Let the man work." I turned back to the people, my people, that had gathered around.
"Ladies, gentlemen. I present to you Zofere, first of the Weavers. The Weavers, as their name suggest, will tie our small community together. While you are logging, mining, and building, they will be preparing your meals, tending to wounds, and paying attention to the fine details that you do not have the time to oversee."
Then, Zofere stepped from behind my back. She was about my height with long, multi-jointed arms and fingers that could bend either way. They expanded, twitched rapidly, and then she pulled the joints back in so that her appendages looked normal.
"Woah..." I heard multiple exclamations of surprise ripple through the crowd of Gruffs and Carpenters. As one, they fell to a knee. "Hail Lord Donovan, Creator of Life!" They shouted in unison. I could feel my face turn red at the unexpected attention.
"Antuhr! Come here, please." The massive Gruff did as he was told, towering above his kneeling compatriots. "You were the one who sparked my lordship. Meet with Murlough. Together, you will be able to advise my people while I am gone." Antuhr nodded almost reverently, and scurried off to follow his instructions.
You have gained Respect with your subjects!
You have promoted subjects Antuhr and Murlough to Advisors! (3 Advisor slots remaining)
Advisors gain +10 to all stats and can share information telepathically with their Ruler if they are within 30 feet of each other.
You have gained Great Respect with Antuhr!
You have gained Great Respect with Murlough!
I dismissed the notifications, beyond pleased with their extra attribute buffs. The Gruffs and Crafters slowly dispersed back to their duties, while I gave Zofere orientation. Then I gave her my sword at her insistence that she was going to start making boar steak for the others.
Finally, I activated Miner's Sight and left riding on the large spider's back. I've got it! "Hey buddy, ready for a name? I'm going to call you Arach! It's like Eric, only... Arach!" God, sometimes I'm just too good at this for my own good. I laughed to myself, even though I really did like the name.
A high, irritating whistle pierced the air and made me clutch at my ears while Arach moaned in pain. The whistle was followed by a sonic boom that launched me from my spider's back as the massive creature collapsed to the ground.
Pain flared through me as my skin blistered from an unknown source of heat. The torture was only amplified when I crashed into, then through, a cluster of trees and finally slammed into the hard, unyielding earth.
"Fucking hell." I coughed, and felt warm blood spray out of my mouth. I didn't need a health bar to let me know that I was in less than optimal condition. My armor had saved me from the worst of the damage, but I was pretty busted up inside if the blood was any measure.
Still, I couldn't just lay there forever. I struggled to my feet, ignoring the pain as best as I could. I may have not had the sheer amount of Levels that I used to, but I had still experienced my fair share of pain. Compared to the things I had seen before? This really wasn't all that bad.
Then, I remembered that I left my sword with Zofere. I had fully counted on Arach to be able to defend me, but apparently that had been a mistake. He was still alive, but wasn't doing so hot.
Despite all of this, there was one piece of information that disturbed me above all others. The only person around was a Level 1 man with nothing on him but a poorly made, roughspun tunic and matching trousers.
How the hell did a Level 1 do that? It sounded like a fucking ballistic missile! It looked like one too. There was an enormous crater about fifty feet away, ringed by charred and blackened flora. Jagged shards of metal were sticking out of trees, dirt, and yes- even Arach.
"What the hell? Where am I?!" The man appeared dazed and disoriented... Just like I was when I first got here! A random guy appearing out of nowhere, surviving in this place as a Level 1? Not likely. That doesn't explain the explosion though.
The man was tall, slightly over six feet, and was built like a Mac truck. His hair was blonde, and fell down to his almost unnaturally wide shoulders.
"Hey there!" The man jumped at my sudden voice. "I haven't been in civilization long enough to figure out what the name of this kingdom or whatever is, but it's essentially like a video game. Only this time, we don't respawn." Breathing hurt as the man stared me down, and I could see a sort of blankness in his eyes as he tried to register what had happened.
"N-No, I was on the U.S.S. Iowak. W-we. I was in my cabin during downtime on my laptop. There was a missile warning... I shouldn't be alive right now." PTSD maybe? And I guess I was right about the whole ballistic missile thing.
"Listen-" I trailed off, waiting for him to supply a name.
"Private Austin."
I nodded to show I had heard him. "Okay, Austin. You're about to experience a whole lot more weird shit. I need you to just chill out for a sec and get your bearings while I fix the shit that that missile did to me and Arach." I coughed again, and the soldier recoiled slightly as more blood came up.
"It's not really your fault, don't worry about it." I wiped the blood off of my chin and went to Arach, who was at barely over 10% health. Without him taking most of the blast, I definitely would have died.
"This is going to hurt like a sonofabitch my friend. I'll do what I can to stabilize you until we can get a body over to fix you." One of his legs was severed near the end, which gave me a gruesome idea. But first I had to do my job as a monarch, even if a relatively new one, and protect my people.
"Austin, I know this isn't a great first experience here, but I need you to pull this crap out of my friend here. Now." The man jumped to attention, and we quickly went to work despite his obvious apprehension.
After he pulled each shard, I molded Arach's flesh to sink down, giving me a little extra material to work with that I used to patch worst of his injuries. It was by no means perfect, but it would keep him alive for the time being.
That done, I picked up his still severed leg and activated both Hunter's and Warrior's Sight. The explosion was sure to drive away some creatures, but it was sure to attract just as many. Hopefully they were within my ability to handle, though with my mana pool and Force attacks I wasn't really worried.
The only problem was my health, which wasn't raising at all because of internal damage. It wasn't dropping either, which was something. I had considered the possibility of making changes to myself in the same way I created the Gruffs and Crafters, but never really considered it before now. But if it helped me heal instantaneously, I was definitely going to give it a shot.
Glowing pinpricks of light, quickly growing in size, broke me out of my memory. Hunter's sight had picked up three creatures moving my way, Tainted Goblins by the looks of
it. "Austin, get back. We've got incoming, and at your Level they just might kill you before I can kill them."
While that was technically true, it was more just to get him out of the way so I didn't hit him with friendly fire. Force Wall was too concussive to use with innocents around. Not that he was necessarily trustworthy, but he also wasn't an enemy yet.
I started powering up Force Wall and three Force Spears. The wall was fairly weak, with just enough power to knock the goblins on their ass when they showed up. From there, the spears would hopefully do the rest.
My plan started without a hitch. The Tainted Goblins ran headlong into the nearly invisible Force Wall, which slammed them into the ground and stunned them. Then my spears shot forward, skewering two of them through the head. One of them managed to twist out of the way just enough to take the hit spear in its shoulder, wounding but not killing it.
"Damn!" I swore as the thing howled in pain and charged me. I powered a Force Slash as quickly as I could, but the beast was on me before it got any real power behind it. We both crashed to the ground in a mess of limbs and pain and blood.
I felt the goblin's claws tear into my side, its sword forgotten on the ground. Arach's leg was planted firmly into the thing's chest, and the combined weight made my already ruined ribcage feel like it was about to collapse.
Suddenly a spurt of goblin blood sprayed into my face, blinging and choking me. "Fucking crazy thing!" I heard Austin scream only somewhat hysterically. I spluttered and wiped my face before pushing the dead goblin off of me. Austin held its now bloody sword in pale, shaky hands.
"Thanks. I owe you one." I coughed, tasting the goblin blood that covered my face get in my mouth. The taste almost made me wretch. "Alright, time to fix me and big ugly over there." I said, as much to myself as to Austin.
With a deep, painful breath that made something in my chest pop, I set to work on myself. As soon as I turned the focus of Creative Spark onto myself, my vision shifted so that I could see my own body. Okay. Let's just hope I don't fuck myself up.
First, I set my ribs back in place and replaced any torn and burnt flesh. The pigmented goblin meat changed my own skin color, which pissed me off to no end, but there wasn't much to be done about it. Then, I did the same to Arach.
After I finished, I noticed the horrified look on Austin's face. I quickly explained the situation we found ourselves in to him, if watered down a little bit. When he seemed stable enough not to break down mentally, I continued my search for ore with Arach and the soldier in tow.
It took almost the rest of the day, but I found decently large supplies of copper, tin, and even some iron and coal. I marked the spots on my minimap for further use before heading back to Haven Clearing.
Before we arrived, I told Austin more or less what to expect. Nonetheless, the large soldier squealed like a schoolgirl when he saw the clearing. "Y-you made those?!" The man was becoming increasingly pale, and looked on the verge on fainting.
To be fair, things were looking much different than when I left. A base for the longhouse had been set up, and nearly all of the Gruffs and Crafters were resting contentedly against its side with full, distended stomachs. The massive things were still up to my shoulders even though they were sitting down.
"Just wait until you meet Zofere." I chuckled, and strode into the clearing.
Chapter 7
"Alright Austin, now that you've come to grips with what this place is, it's time for a choice. You can either stay here, and provide help to me and my budding kingdom. I will provide you protection, arms, and the chance to grow powerful. Or, you can leave and I will not stop you. I will provide you what weapons and armor I can, and will personally escort you to the edge of my territory."
Austin looked thoughtful, and much more composed than when he had first arrived and almost inadvertently killed me. He would be a good addition to my personal retinue and, if I was being honest, would eventually be much more powerful attribute wise than I would be. Each of his Levels would get him three times as many points as it would for me. I could also use a good tank.
We were sitting at a table in the newly finished longhouse, in front of a stone fireplace that the Crafters had required my help building. Wooden plates, once full of boar steak, were stacked to the side of the table along with wooden mugs filled with water.
"Personally Donovan, I don't know much about this world, and I don't think I would survive against even one of those things you killed back there. But I know video games, and I know how the Navy works. You can't beat a raid, or run a battleship with just one person. I'll stay."
I smiled, and clapped the man on his shoulder. I made him part of my kingdom, and then an advisor, which gave him +15 to each of his stats when all was said and done. "First thing's first, I'll introduce you to Murlough and Antuhr. Then we'll have the Crafters make you some gear.
In the three days since Austin had arrived, there had been a minor attack. A large group of Goblins, mostly Brutes and Strikers, had charged the Clearing. They failed miserably, but I knew that they would be back eventually with stronger fighters. When they came, I would welcome the attack. For each enemy we killed, we grew a little bit stronger. With Murlough's efforts, and a new batch of five Weavers that had been trained by Zofere, the first crops would be available in less than a month.
The goblin bodies, and a large part of the ever growing pile of miscellaneous flesh, went toward making fifteen more Gruffs and just as many more Crafters, as well as four more small spiders. I sent all of the gruffs, armed with shovels and pickaxes made from old goblin weapons to the copper deposit I had found.
I sent five of the new crafters and all of the new spiders with them, to make any tools they would need in the future as well as carts for the dirt they would need to move. The deposit was over thirty feet underground, so there would be plenty of it.
As Austin and I left the house, I mentally called Antuhr, who was near the treeline helping a few of his fellow Gruffs remove the tree stumps that were left behind from our logging. After each stump was removed, Zofere would lovingly plant a new seed.
"Antuhr, my friend, how are you?" I greeted as the enormous Gruff drew near.
The addition to his stats and Levels made him much larger than the others of his race, and he towered over everyone else in the Clearing. "I am well, thanks to your efforts." He boomed, making Austin jump a little. I chuckled, and introduced him to Austin.
After the formalities were concluded, I asked Antuhr to have a few people gather what remained of the goblins' weapons. He nodded and ran off, but was quickly replaced by Murlough, who seemed slightly annoyed at being called back from one of his increasingly common solo hunting trips. The Shaman was becoming a little reclusive, something I would have to fix eventually.
"Lord Donovan, you requested me?" Murlough said with an elegant bow. I wasn't sure where he learned the gesture, but it was slightly unsettling.
"Thank you for coming, Murlough. This is Austin." I introduced the two before continuing, "I've got another human that has been brought to this land. He needs evaluation, and he needs gear. Run him through any tests you see fit, just don't scare him off. Austin, I don't know what class you're used to playing, so I'll leave it to you and Murlough to figure out how you want to progress."
I dismissed them, and watched as the pair disappeared into the woods. I knew Murlough could take just about any creature that they encountered, but I sent a few spiders with them just in case. When they got back, the real training would begin.
◆◆◆
"I- I think you forget how much faster your attributes Level than mine do." Austin stood meekly to the side. Antuhr stood between us with an axe in one of his larger hands and a shield in the other, and twin swords in the smaller ones.
With a shaky hand, I pulled the remnants of what had been a copper helmet off of my head. In the month since Austin had arrived, he had grown into a skilled and powerful warrior, as the gashes and tears throughout my armor sought to prove.
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