by Aleron Kong
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Beyan blinked a few more times, “I will be fine. I am merely dizzy.” Beyan seemed to remember something all of a sudden. He whipped his head around, then grabbed it with a groan. After a few moments, he reopened his eyes and looked around more slowly. When his eyes fell upon the knight’s body, he grinned and jumped free of Richter’s supporting arm. Of course, he immediately fell down again, groaning anew.
Shaking his head, Richter helped him up again. “What the hell is wrong with you, man?”
Beyan looked at him with a smile, his eyes showing both pain and joy, “It worked!”
“Whaaat worked?” Richter asked slowly.
Beyan’s face grew slightly pensive, “Remember, my lord. I was only following your orders.”
“What orders?” Richter asked with a touch of warning in his voice.
“You told me ‘Do what you can’. I did not have any spells that could fight the spirits. All I could do was remove one spirit and hopefully create a fighter to distract the rest. So I…”
“You claimed the decaemur knight,” Richter finished resignedly.
“I claimed the decaemur knight,” Beyan echoed excitedly. “Stand up!”
Richter looked at the gnome, prepared to ask who the small man thought he was talking to, but then naked knight’s body stood. It had fallen in a heap when the mist worker holding it had been ripped apart. It just stood there, staring off into space. The awareness that had been in its eyes before was gone.
“Are you in control of it?” Richter asked. “What happened to Jorgen’s spirit?”
“I am in absolute control, Lord Richter,” Beyan said confidently. “And Jorgen’s spirit is gone.” The second statement was said with a bit less confidence.
“You’re sure?” Richter asked.
Beyan looked at him, pursed his lips slightly, then said, “Yes.”
Richter had had enough, “Alright, that’s it! Command this thing to take orders from me, then you, then Sion, then Terrod and Randolphus, in that order! Do it now and be clear that this order can never be revoked!”
“But, my lord…”
“Now,” Richter said. There was steel in his gaze as he spoke. The stress of the ghostly attack, the guilt over once again having brought danger into his village and the frustration of feeling circumvented by Beyan threatened to spill over. It might have been his imagination, but it almost felt like the new walls in his mind that had appeared when he had gained his Self-Awareness skill were being assaulted. “I am the lord of these lands. I value you Beyan, but I will not allow you to take liberties with the safety of your fellow villagers. I will not allow for this undead thing to harm anyone if you are nowhere to be found. I have fought it once, I will not be surprised by an attack from it again. I will see it hacked to pieces and burnt now before the sun has moved another inch across the sky first.” His voice never rose in volume, but his grip tightened on his swords and the point of his freeze blade rose slightly, “Now do as I command.”
Beyan’s face took on a slightly shocked look, but by the end of Richter’s speech he was simply listening quietly. It was clear to the gnome that he was hearing the Lord of the Mist Village, not the often humorous man that walked about in his skin. No one else spoke, until Beyan stepped forward and offered his hand. Richter looked at him for a long moment, but then drove the blade of one his swords into the ground. He reached forward and the two men clasped wrists.
“It will be as you command, my lord,” Beyan said. “You are the lord of these lands and I am happy to have given you my allegiance.”
Richter nodded, “Thank you, Beyan. I value your service.”
Not wasting any more time, Beyan beckoned the knight closer. He stated simply that Richter was the undead’s true master and to follow his instructions before anyone else’s. After that Richter asked the undead to indicate its master and it pointed to the chaos seed. Beyan then gave the others authority over the undead knight as he had been instructed. Finally he stated that the orders given could never be changed, unless Richter commanded it.
“Thank you,” Richter said placing his hand on the gnome’s shoulder. “Believe me when I tell you I plan for all of us to grow in strength.” Beyan nodded. “If that thing is going to fight for us, it should be properly outfitted.” So saying, he removed the knight’s armor from his bag, except for one gauntlet to be sacrificed to the forge. He didn’t give it a weapon though. No reason for it to be armed if it didn’t have to be.
Any irritation or bad feelings Beyan might have had about Richter laying down the law seemed to disappear when he saw that his lord was going to trick out his new ride. Richter told him to have Krom fix any damage in the armor, then left the gnome to it. Richter had prompts to read.
CHAPTER 22 -- Day 112 -- Kuborn 2, 15368 EBG
You have trapped the soul of a Tortured Spirit! Soul level: Common. x 5.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 4 in Dual Wield. Base accuracy penalty in primary hand reduced to 22% and in offhand to 47%. Attack speed increased by 1%.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 10 in War Leader. +1% effective distance. +1% attack and defense for all allies within sphere of influence.
You have received 1,250 (base 2,000 x 1.25 x 0.5) bonus experience for reaching level 10 in the skill: War Leader.
Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: War Leader. Maximum party size increased to 10. You may now have two other war leaders create their own war parties under your command. These war leaders must be of a lesser skill rank than you. Your sphere of influence is increased from 50 to 100 yards. New Badges are available for purchase. New skilled positions are available. Field advancements are now possible for heroic efforts. +200 to Fighting Spirit. You can now access the real-time numbers for the health, mana, and stamina of everyone in your war party.
Congratulations! Your war party survived an attack from a numerically superior force. For facing and defeating a force ten times larger than your own, your party has been awarded the Promotion: Overwhelming Odds I. +10 to Fighting Spirit.
Congratulations! Your war party survived an attack from a numerically superior force. For facing and defeating a force twenty times larger than your own, your party has been awarded the Promotion: Overwhelming Odds II. +20 to Fighting Spirit.
Fighting Spirit for your war party has increased from +280 (100 Champion (Richter) + 100 Champion (Terrod) + 80 Captain of the Guard while fighting inside of the domain of Mist Village) to +510.
Woot! He had progressed to the next rank in War Leader. If he was reading these prompts correctly, it looked like he had just become exponentially more badass! Despite his elation, the last prompt gave him pause.
Richter looked at Sion, “Hey, bud. Are you feeling any more... violent?... than before?”
Sion looked up with a concerned expression. “I thought I was imagining things.” He slowly opened and closed his fists. “I have been wanting to destroy something. To bash something in. It started… as soon as I looked at your ugly face.” Sion gave an evil chuckle and turned away, shaking his head at his friend’s stupidity.
“Fucking Toy Story reject,” Richter muttered. He didn’t let his friend’s oh-so-not-funny comments bother him. It was good news that the increase in Fighting Spirit didn’t make everyone in his war party a homicidal madman. Still, he didn’t quite understand the significance of it. He remembered that the Morale of the Village could affect it. He also remembered seeing mention of it being decreased when he had killed an enemy champion. Richter still needed more info.
He focused upon the icon for his war party, a gauntleted fist, where it hovered along the corner of his vision. A translucent window appeared to cover his visual field. After scanning it for a moment, he found a button in the form of a capital “FS”. Choosing it brought him the information he sought.
A number line appeared in the window, looking much the same as the slider he had seen before for Loyalty, Mo
rale and Health on his city screen. This had different names and values, however. A quick count showed a total of eleven ranks for Fighting Spirit, or FS. There were five positives, one neutral and five negative ranks. The progression was: Broken Spirit, Panicked, Frightened, Unnerved, Disheartened, Neutral, Aggressive, Violent, Ruthless, Savage and Blood Lust. His war party had been fighting at the first positive rank, ‘Aggressive’. That had apparently given +10% to damage. Each higher rank in FS increased the damage and also made it less likely for his troops to run away or be susceptible to fear. There was no mention of whether this damage was limited only to melee, magical or ranged, so he would just have to wait and see, but Richter kept his fingers crossed that the bonus was universal. He still wasn’t exactly sure what it meant to be a Champion, but he let that particular bone go unchewed. There were more awesome prompts to read!
You have completed your first Challenge: Leave No Man Behind I! You survived a total of five battles with common soul enemies or higher without losing a single party member.
Reward: 30 War Points. Total War Points: 316
You have unlocked a Challenge: Leave No Man Behind II! Survive a total of ten battles with common soul enemies or higher without losing a single party member. Fail Condition(s): Adding new party member. Death of a party member. Reward: 40 War Points.
Know This! War Points are awarded based upon the soul level of slain enemies.
For slaying one hundred and seven Tortured Spirits, you have been awarded four hundred and twenty-eight War Points! Total War Points: 744.
Double Woot! He had hundreds of war points to spend! His fingers tingled as he mentally accessed the badges that were now available. Daddy was going to do some shoppin!
Badge
Cost
Description (applies to entire party)
Melee Attack I
10
+5% to melee attacks
Melee Defense I
10
+5% to melee defense
Ranged Attack I
10
+5% to ranged attacks
Ranged Defense I
10
+5% to ranged defense
Magical Attack I
10
+5% to magical attacks
*Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.
Magical Attack II (Life)
20
+5% to magical attacks
*Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.
Magical Defense I
10
+5% to magical defense
*Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.
Skilled Positions
100 to unlock each
Available Positions:
Tank I: +10% more likely to aggro, +5% defense
Scout I: +10% to Stealth, can “assign” enemies, will appear as red glow to party members
*Scout position works outside Sphere of Influence
Healer I: +10% to healing spells, first aid and other healing efforts
Lead by Example I
150
As war leader, you may adopt the benefits of a skilled position in addition to whomever you assigned.
*Purchasing this badge will only apply to skilled positions unlocked at the initiate rank of the War Leader skill
Movement Speed I
20
+10% Movement Speed
*Must specify terrain type upon acquisition. May only choose terrain type that the War party has traveled on.
Favored Enemy I
20
+10% Attack and Defense when fighting a favored enemy
*Must specify enemy acquisition. May only choose enemies which have been fought while leading a War Party. Only one favored enemy per War Party formation.
Trainer I
50
+5% experience earned for War Party members
Power Level I
25
10% of the experience earned by the entire war party can be channeled to a specific member
*Experience recipient must be within sphere of influence
Sphere of Influence I
100
Increase range of sphere of influence by 100%
Is there such a thing as a triple woot, Richter asked himself. His gaze immediately went to the skilled positions. In recent battles, one of the biggest problems was that his weaker members had been swarmed with the same frequency as those with greater defense. They had been able to ameliorate that with tactics and rudimentary battle formations, but it still left his casters vulnerable. With no hesitation, he purchased Tank I. He knew a certain Sergeant of the Guard that would benefit from this.
Almost as if by magic, Richter saw Futen floating back up and behind him ran Caulder and dozens of guards. He called out to Terrod to go meet them. The captain rushed forward to assure the guards that the threat was indeed over. Caulder just nodded with sweat running down his face, clearly still ready to fight if it was required. Plenty of the guards looked ready to fall over though after having run in their armor for a few miles. One even vomited when he stopped running. Frowning, Richter made a mental note to tell Caulder to increase the calisthenics the guards were undergoing each day. If their stamina was that weak, they would be butchered in a standup fight against the bugbears. Seeing that his mana had refilled, he summoned four mist workers and sent them to help Sumiko. He also allocated his mana regen to start paying the cost to unlock the next level of the sonic enchantment once his pool reached five hundred points again. Then he turned his attention back to the badges.
The interface had changed slightly. The other skilled positions each still cost one hundred each. A new badge had appeared now for Tank II. The cost to upgrade the position was only fifty points. Richter was surprised at first that it was so low, but then supposed it made sense that unlocking the position would cost more than merely improving it. Level two increased aggro and defense to 20% and 10% respectively, but it also did something else. Whoever took the position of tank now had a ten-yard sphere of influence that increased the defense of any allies in it by 5%.
He paid the fifty war points with a smile and the interface changed again, now showing Tank III. Almost everything was greyed out on the new badge, though, and the only thing that Richter could see was a small message saying that he could not upgrade to Tank III until he increased his war leader rank. Richter turned his attention to the other positions. After seeing how useful the second level of tank was, he wasted no time purchasing the other two skill positions as well, as well as the upgrades. Each greyed out at level three. His smile deepened when he saw that Scout II came with a wonderful boost. Now only did the stealth bonus increase to 20%, but the assign target function came with a weak version of Analyze. Each assigned enemy would show its level to the whole party. Richter could see how strategically this information could be clutch. It would let them take out weak outlier units before battle and let them take out high level enemies quickly once battle was joined. Healer II increased healing by 20% and decreased the mana cost of healing spells by 5%.
The next purchase was a no-brainer. He paid one hundred and fifty points and bought Lead by Example I. He was fairly certain of who would fill each position, Sion would scout, Caulder would tank, and if Sumiko did indeed come with them to raid through the Dark portal, she would obviously be the healer. Otherwise, Krom would fill the role. With his latest purchase, though, Richter could now double in any of those roles. He had been right. He had become more badass!
So far he had spent six hundred war points, leaving him another one hundred and forty-four to play with. He looked over the available badges again, trying to decide what the best option was. Increasing attack and defense was always a good idea, but it seemed like an immediate satisfaction rather than a long term yield. What his eyes were drawn to was Power Le
vel I.
Every day, Roswan and dozens of others were working to build the village into something amazing. Richter still believed that the key to the village’s future success was to build his people into something amazing as well. He could envision a society of Professionals and Specialists. The Morale and Loyalty of the village was already high enough that he was fairly certain everyone would choose to stay after their one year contract was up. That just left leveling them.
Unfortunately, the fastest way to level someone was also the most dangerous: combat. He needed to get his people to level ten, so they had the chance to get a noncombat Profession, especially those that already had a journeyman rank in an appropriate skill. Luckily, the mere fact that they had become journeymen meant that they had also gotten twenty thousand experience points from reaching skill level forty. Seeing as how it only took forty-five thousand XP to advance to character level ten, any journeyman should already be most of the way there; he just needed to get them across the finish line. This new badge could make that a lot easier by letting him channel a portion of the war party’s experience to a noncombatant. He purchased Power Level I.
Twenty-five points were deducted from his war point pool, and the opportunity to buy Power Level II appeared. This next Badge cost fifty war points but increased the experience allocation to 20%. He could also now divide the allocated experience to more than one person. Perhaps most interesting, Power Level II allowed the recipients of the allocated experience to be further away from the fighting and still get experience. Specifically, twice the distance defined by his sphere of influence. Obviously, the problem with taking noncombatants into combat was that they could, in fact, be drawn into combat. Allowing them to hang further back could greatly increase their safety. He purchased the badge. Power Level III appeared and unlike the skilled positions, this badge was not greyed out. It did cost one hundred war points though. After his shopping spree, he only had sixty-nine points left. That also, unfortunately, made Sphere of Influence I too expensive, which would have been an indirect way to increase the distance the noncombatants could have been from the action. He decided to look at what else was available.