The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4)

by A F Kay

  Ruwen remembered his surprise when offered the Root Class. But then again, he had been a nobody. It shouldn’t have surprised him that these leaders knew of the Root Class, and it made him wonder what current leadership knew of the Champion’s existence. “No, it’s not everyday knowledge. But four of Uru’s Champions, trapped in the Spirit Realm, all returned at the same time. Even if normal folk don’t know the details, all the other gods do. Secrecy is no longer a shield for Uru’s Champions. They are each in charge of coordinating a portion of our country’s defense.”

  The last sentence hung in the air.

  Zahara laughed and leaned back. The Merchant looked comfortable in an expensive sage green robe. “Aren’t you just full of surprises?”

  Yana looked at her own Void Band and then at Ruwen. “A powerful combination.”

  “Do these other Champions have totems as well?” Vachyl asked, his plate armor creaking as he moved.

  Ruwen shrugged. “I can’t be sure.”

  “There’s more, though,” Drivyd whispered from his seat across the table.

  The Observer grew still and Ruwen mirrored him, sensing danger. Drivyd barely lifted his hand and two small bolts shot toward Ruwen from the Spy’s wrist. Last Breath triggered but Ruwen didn’t need it for just two bolts.

  Remaining in the seat, Ruwen casually turned his torso sideways, allowing the first bolt to pass harmlessly past him and into the chair. The bolt aimed at his neck, he gently pushed as it neared, altering its trajectory. A loud snap echoed in the room as it struck the wall behind him.

  Ruwen kept his breathing even and his body relaxed, prepared for any other attacks. The first bolt had snapped against the metal chair, and he placed the pieces on the table.

  Niall gasped. “Are you mad, Elder Drivyd?”

  Hamma stood and began casting a spell at Drivyd. Ruwen reached up and gently pulled her back to her seat. “Thanks, Hamma. It’s okay.”

  “You see it, Vachyl, right?” Drivyd asked. “I’m not the only one?”

  Vachyl nodded. “He has some Clan training.”

  “Not some,” Drivyd said. “He might be a Master. I can’t tell because he is hiding his natural movements.”

  “Interesting,” Vachyl said.

  “I can’t shake his focus either,” Drivyd said. “I’ve tried everything, but he remains aware of my presence. I am very interested in how he’s doing that.”

  Ruwen sighed. “Speaking of focus, can we focus on the invasion?”

  Drivyd shrugged. “Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the child Uru put in charge of us seems like an appropriate use of time.”

  Ruwen let the jab at his age go. It was true, and he needed the benefit of their experience. In fact, the comment itself was probably just another test by the Observer.

  Yana frowned at Drivyd before turning to Ruwen. “Did Deepwell and Stone Harbor survive?”

  Ruwen assumed the Worker Elder meant survived whatever catastrophe occurred here. “Yes. And their defenses are being organized by the three other Champions. The restoration of this temple has surprised everyone.”

  Vachyl placed his plated arms on the table with a loud clang. “That explains Naktos and Haffa’s involvement. They were likely only responsible for controlling the sea and southern flank, preventing any escape south. Not as deeply committed as the other gods.”

  Odalys nodded. “With none of Uru’s temples nearby, they wouldn’t have to fear a protracted battle.”

  Yana nodded at Ruwen. “But he brought us back. With the temple restored, Eiru—I mean Uru’s Blessing will be visible on their maps. It is doubtful they’ll ignore us.”

  “Which means we need to fortify the city immediately,” Gabryel said.

  Vachyl growled. “Again, Gabryel? How many times will you make the same mistake? Hiding only gives them time to defeat us. We should strike decisively to turn them around. Just like we should have before. If the intelligence is correct, there are only ten thousand. That is barely a fight.”

  “I think Naktos is hiding his army,” Ruwen said.

  Everyone stared at him.

  “I encountered an underground Naktos base when collecting oil for the temple, and the Temple Guardians reported two interesting facts. Their main army moves slowly and there are no visible revival baths.”

  “You think they’re underground?” Yana asked.

  “Maybe,” Ruwen said. “Or cloaked.”

  “So the first priority is intelligence,” Drivyd said, the red balloons around his head like a halo.

  Ruwen nodded. “It is likely we’ll need to defend the city. But the threat might not come from the surface. While we are collecting intelligence, how do we strengthen the ground under us?”

  “Stone Mages,” Odalys said, tapping his jeweled hands on the table.

  Zahara frowned and folded the sash of her green robe. “Without Alchemists to create Mana potions, they won’t be very productive.”

  Yana tapped her chin. “Without Gatherers your Alchemists won’t have any ingredients, plus Harden is a spell every Worker has access to. At level five it’s as strong as diamond.”

  Niall spoke up. “Without food stores, you’ll need Priests to make water and bread and Enforcers to help protect the city.”

  Vachyl sat up straight. “We’ll need Fighters for the walls and to patrol the surrounding area.”

  “And Scouts to gather enemy intelligence,” Drivyd said.

  It shouldn’t have surprised Ruwen that every Class played an important part. “Information is our highest priority. How many Observer teams do we need?”

  Drivyd thought for a few seconds. “Eight primary five man teams, each with a backup.”

  “That’s eighty Observers,” Ruwen said.

  “We’ll want at least one Observer in every Fighter patrol, and a few teams of just scouts,” Vachyl said. “Plus we’ll want some Marksman and Mages on the walls.”

  “How many additional people is that?” Ruwen asked.

  Vachyl spoke as he thought. “Three rings, five man teams, staggered formation, twelve hour shifts, moderate density,” the Warlord’s words became a mumble for ten seconds and then he focused on Ruwen. “Ninety-six Observers, ninety-six Mages, and two hundred eighty-eight Fighters.”

  Ruwen frowned. “With the original eighty that puts us over five hundred—”

  Vachyl interrupted. “That’s just the patrols. For the inner walls, assuming we get the Craftsman and Worker support to repair them, we need another,” Vachyl’s voice trailed off as he closed his eyes and thought through the distribution. “Watchful spacing, twelve-hour shifts, six-mile circumference, war configuration,” the Fighter said and then opened his eyes and faced Ruwen. “Six hundred sixty Mages and the same number of Healers. One thousand three hundred twenty Marksman, and three thousand nine hundred sixty Fighters.”

  Ruwen stared at the Warlord. “Are you serious?”

  “That is a minimum,” Vachyl said. “Watchful spacing is okay now, but within a week I want to be at vigilant spacing, and shortly after that, war spacing. We will need to double our numbers and then double them again.”

  In two weeks, the Warlord wanted over twenty-five thousand troops just for the walls. Lir had told Ruwen the temple could comfortably house six thousand people. They would be far beyond that in just a week.

  Vachyl wasn’t done. “That should be sufficient to protect the city from enemies that avoid our main force, which we will use to strike the enemy before they’re prepared. Assuming Naktos is hiding seventy-five percent of his forces, and we want a three to one advantage, every warrior over one hundred twenty thousand will make the battle easier.”

  Ruwen didn’t know how to respond. In the last minute, Vachyl had casually requested over one hundred fifty thousand people.

  Chapter 46

  Ruwen shook his head. “How many people does it take to support a force like that?”

  Yana rubbed her Void Band while she spoke. “Without seeing the city in dayligh
t and the condition of the walls, it’s hard to calculate resources. But during the war, it took two non-combat personnel for every fighter. I would say in our current conditions you could safely double that.”

  Ruwen put his head in his hands. “That’s another six hundred thousand people for a total of over seven hundred fifty thousand. Basically, everyone in queue for revival. Except half of them are children. So, we are already at half of what you all want.” Ruwen turned to Gabryel. “How many revival baths are here?”

  “Across all floors, three hundred,” Gabryel said.

  Ruwen looked at Niall. “And the fastest we could revive people?”

  “Assuming you had the terium, a sixty-minute cycle is probably sustainable. Thirty-minute revivals followed by a thirty-minute transition into life as we flush the revival baths and prepare the tubs for the next bodies. Transition might take longer if the previous death was traumatic, which can complicate the shift back to life.”

  Ruwen did the math in his head. “If we revived three hundred people every hour, that’s seven thousand two hundred a day. So not even a full day into this and we would run out of normal rooms in the temple. Even after two weeks, we’d only have revived a hundred thousand people, well short of our needs. And we can’t begin until our terium arrives.”

  Hamma spoke for the first time. “I’ve encountered a Naktos Assassin twice and a Mage once. While my experience is limited, they seem clever and cautious. We don’t have the time or infrastructure to fight them in a traditional manner, and I don’t believe they will fight us like that, regardless.”

  Ruwen thought about Hamma’s words. “They will probably scout the city to find out our numbers. We need to either stop them or deceive them. While they might not normally fight traditionally, if they see how low our numbers are, they may just swamp us.”

  “That complicates things,” Drivyd said. “We can’t kill any enemy scouts that get close enough to gain good intelligence. Or even allow them to kill themselves. Because as soon as they’re revived, they’ll report their findings.”

  “We don’t have the facilities or people to hold them,” Vachyl said. “Which means we must keep them unconscious.”

  “That requires more Healers, to keep them in a coma,” Gabryel said.

  “Which will have a significant Mana cost,” Zahara said. “And brings us back to the Alchemist and Worker issues of creating potions.”

  Ruwen didn’t see any good solutions.

  Rami, what do you think?

  Terium is good for more than reviving.

  It took a moment, but Ruwen understood. Right.

  Using Chat, Ruwen spoke to Hamma. If you use the rest of my terium coins, how many people could we revive at the thirty-minute pace?

  Maybe twenty thousand.

  Okay, add my coins to the temple, please. If my parents don’t make it back soon, I have another idea.

  Are you sure?

  Yeah, but don’t use your coins or Sift’s. I don’t know what our future brings, but I doubt it will be cheap.

  Okay.

  Ruwen made sure his Tutor buff remained active and then looked around at the Elders. This had been far more complicated than he’d thought, and it bothered him he might not make the correct decisions. “We have many needs, and so we must balance our response. We have room for six thousand in the temple, so that will be our first revival goal.”

  No one spoke, so Ruwen continued. “But we don’t have the people to support reviving that many yet, so we’ll start smaller by reviving one hundred from the Order Class. We need to organize the revival process and prepare the temple. Then we revive two hundred Observers so the information gathering can begin.”

  Ruwen cleared his throat and continued. “The remaining numbers to revive are three hundred Fighters, one hundred Merchants, two hundred Workers, and one hundred Mages.”

  Gabryel nodded. “It is a start.”

  “Before we break,” Ruwen said. “We need to decide the first three structures to build.”

  “Barracks,” Vachyl said immediately.

  “The Alchemists will need a Laboratory,” Zahara said.

  “The walls need rebuilt in many places and the gates repaired,” Yana said.

  “The temple may house a few thousand, but we can’t feed them all here,” Gabryel said. “We need a Dining Hall, as well as more Living Quarters.”

  “A Workshop,” Yana added.

  “We need an Scryer Room,” Drivyd said, and then explained when he saw Ruwen’s confused expression. “A place to collect and analyze all the data the scouts collect.”

  Zahara spoke again. “We will need many specialist buildings, but a forge will probably be required. Most of us were wearing our best gear when we died. Some will need completely new items.”

  Odalys frowned. “The Mages would benefit from Spires that keep their creations up and away from others. Constructing magic items is dangerous.”

  “A Storehouse for any extra food we manage to create,” Gabryel said.

  Ruwen’s head reeled. They needed months or years for all this. He had days. After a moment of thought, he did the best he could. “We’ll find space for the Laboratory and Scryer room here in the temple.” He turned to Odalys. “The Mages can use the tops of the city’s tall buildings.”

  Ruwen looked at Yana and Zahara. “See if any of the lower portions of those buildings will work for the Storehouse, Workshop, and Merchant specialists.”

  “New construction will center on the walls and gates, a Dining Hall, and Barracks,” Ruwen said.

  Lir, please update Hamma’s map with all the places in the temple with rooms the size of our current location or larger.

  Then in Chat, Ruwen spoke to Hamma. Your map has all the decent size rooms in here. You can check them out and see what works best for the Laboratory and Scryer rooms.

  Okay. What are you doing?

  I’m talking to Fractal about an idea Rami gave me. About using terium for something other than reviving.

  Okay. Don’t have any fun without me.

  I won’t. Promise. And as soon as you have those three Elders on the right track, leave and focus on gaining your Sub Class.

  Okay, I will.

  Once again, Ruwen took the Elders’ silence as assent, and stood. “I’ll leave you all to determine the names and order of those to revive. Then the War Council and City Council can split and focus on your areas.”

  Ruwen turned and left the room. He opened his map and found Sift. Not wanting Hamma to get distracted by his location, he dropped her from the group and added Sift.

  What are you doing? Ruwen asked Sift using Chat.

  It is bad enough to hear your voice when you’re around, but now you’re in my brain.

  Ruwen smiled. And there’s a lot of empty space in here. You probably hear hear hear, echoes echoes echoes.

  Very funny.

  Is Lylan working on her Specialization?

  Yes, and she kicked me out of the room. She said my whistling distracted her.

  Shocking. Why aren’t you Fortifying?

  I used up most of the Spirit. Plus, I can barely move. I may have pushed too hard.

  Want to go talk to Fractal with me?

  Will Blapy be there? Sift asked in a worried voice.

  Ruwen thought about the Divine version of Blapy that had appeared and upgraded Scos a couple of hours ago. I haven’t seen her in a while. We’re probably safe.

  I guess, but I’m tired of surprises.

  You and me both, brother.

  Ruwen left the temple and walked into the cool night air. The moon shone brightly, making it easy to see with his Gold Fortified eyes, and Whiskers appeared next to him in his puma form. Ruwen opened the minimized notifications.

  Ting!

  You have completed the quest “Foundations (Part 1)”

  You have received 60,000 experience(50,000*(1.2 Tutor Modifier))!

  Ting!

  You have completed the quest “The Southern Front (Part 1)
”

  You have received 60,000 experience(50,000*(1.2 Tutor Modifier))!

  One hundred twenty thousand experience almost put Ruwen halfway to level twenty-four. He opened his Profile and glanced at his experience.

  Experience: 121,705/276,000

  More notifications appeared, and Ruwen opened them.

  Ting!

  You have received the quest…

  Foundations (Part 2)

  Increase New Eiru’s Fortification Effectiveness to 70% and provide an organizational structure for the City Council to manage the city.

  Reward: 75,000 experience

  Accept or Decline

  The seventy percent made Ruwen pause. Did that mean he could track values like that? If so, where. Lir, is there a display some place that gives details on the city?

  Details are available at the High Priest panel in the private chapel.

  Any chance it could be added to my interface?

  Eleven unknown variables make the odds difficult to calculate—

  Ruwen interrupted the temple. I mean, can you add it?

  Modification of a biological’s neural interface is outside the bounds of my directive.

  I’ll take that as a no. Rami?

  You are a helpless man-child, Rami said.

  I know. Thank you.

  Ruwen’s map pulsed yellow, and he opened it to find a new tab named New Eiru next to the one labeled Shattered Sun.

  Opening the New Eiru tab, Ruwen scanned the mostly red text until he found Fortification Effectiveness. The quest had wanted him to increase it to seventy percent, which would take some work since it currently rested at fifteen percent.

  The quest also required him to organize the city, something else he had no experience doing. With a sigh, Ruwen accepted the quest and looked at the second one.

  Ting!

  You have received the quest…

  The Southern Front (Part 2)

  Revive ten thousand warriors and create a command structure for the War Council’s orders.

  Reward: 75,000 experience