First War

by Nathan Valerio

  They all looked to the side and saw the goats.

  “They are goats… Master.” The commander replied.

  "I know that.” Akor said rolling his eyes, “What I want you men to do is simple. The first one to tame one of them as a mount will become the commander of the cavalry that I am building.” Akor said.

  All their eyes widened and a flame of ambition burst in their eyes.

  A high position meant more power and more power meant more control. Demons all desire to have power so to become the commander of the cavalry meant becoming the first official army commander while the rest were still town guards caused them to grow rapidly ambitious.

  The burning gaze from the captains and commanders were felt by the goats but they simply looked before disregarding them.

  Akor stopped them from rushing and instead decided they would do it in an isolated pen where the herd would not react together.

  The farmers and soldier imps all helped isolate them to start the challenge.

  Chapter 8

  In an open pen with a single hairy mountain goat, a grinning minogida sat triumphantly upon the back of a hairy mountain goat.

  This minogida wasn’t even part of the original group.

  Going back several minutes, the imp commanders were the first to go up and try to tame the creatures. What they got was actually a skillful bucking which sent them flying.

  The goats were strangely skilled in bucking off anything trying to mount it almost like horses who buck off predators.

  What’s morem they had a tendency to run forward before suddenly braking and raising their heads. This move caused the head of the mounted rider to slam into their rock hard head. It actually had a significant damaging power as well as a stunning power.

  None of the following imps were successful much less the warrior minogida.

  This minogida was actually one training to be a mage but had not changed class yet. He was much smarter compared to the warriors.

  The way he tamed it was actually very peculiar because he was weaker than warriors he moved to grab something for stability and gripped the goat’s long horns which were pointed backwards almost like the handles of a bike.

  Because he was able to control the head and had a point of support he actually tired the goat out until it was nearly collapsing.

  Akor’s eyes shone as he saw the way he tamed the goats because it was very interesting to use the horns like handles and control the head.

  Ding!

  One of your minions has discovered a new skill, ‘Beast Riding’.

  Beast Riding Skill

  Level 1

  The skill needed to ride beasts and monsters as a mount.

  The skill description was plain and simple but it suddenly raised a question in Akor’s mind about how the experience points would be distributed.

  He didn’t have the tutorial anymore so after making the minogida who tamed the goat as a mount the first commander of the cavalry, he logged off and went to the main site of the company and posted a question about it.

  The reply came quickly.

  Cavalry Information

  Cavalry are a type of mounted unit. For demons, the experience gain is for the one who kills as before. That is, when the rider kills, it will gain full experience points for the kill. At the same time, if the mount kills, it will gain full experience points as well.

  In addition, mounts gain mount experience points. This is gained depending on the complexity of the orders given while the rider is mounted and the experience is gained when the rider dismounts and the system calculates the experience gained during the time it was ridden as a mount.

  The answer was simple but explained the details just as he wanted. The rider would have to learn to battle while mounted to be able to level up. Thinking about it, weapons used by mounted units would also need to be made, this being spears, lances, swords and the bow and arrow.

  He noted down the information from the reply and returned to [Magic Life] where he called the minogida and Valring.

  “So is it possible to turn the skill he discovered into a research scroll?” Akor asked.

  “Yes, of course. It just needs him to focus on the skill and build the scroll in the same manner research is done but it would be faster since he has the advantage of having the skill. This is also how masters of a skill pass along their teachings or make skill scrolls.

  “Good, you make the scroll first before you start to train cavalry.” He said.

  “Yes master!” he said bowing and heading to the research zone.

  Akor checked the research tab, and it had changed to beast riding skill.

  He ignored this for now and turned to Valring once more, “Have you found any more villages?” he asked.

  “Yes my Lord, there are a number still within our immediate surroundings. She said.

  “And the ones we captured?” he asked.

  "I have placed them in the four directions and have placed some minions as the chiefs. My lord can access them and make the choice of buildings for each village.” She said.

  He nodded and opened the window. He selected the north village and set them first to find any nearby spring and to make all available farms and demon huts.

  It should be noted that the villages all adhered to the research level he has in certain buildings. For one, the farms and buildings were upgraded equal to what the main village had and only the mayor house and village walls did not go along with this.

  What he needed though was food since food affected spawn rate from demons coming from the wild, he also needed to sustain his demons so he wouldn’t stupidly rely on just the food made by one city.

  He made all his villages set up the fields, including the ones with the demon heart, to expand the entire territory’s prosperity.

  When he was done, he nodded and stood up, “Alright, call the commanders, we will continue to clear out the villages until we make a buffer zone for ourselves.” He said.

  “Yes my Lord!” she said excited.

  ***

  A week passed in the game world and ten villages were destroyed within the distance of around 10 km from Sanity. All these villages were brought closer to the town and all of them developed.

  Now when imps and minogida were born, they would directly be taken to these villages or pulled as workers in the town itself.

  The number in the army also drastically increased because of the huge number of cannon fodder born daily and trained by the commanders and captains.

  A squad now consisted of a captain, 20 minions and several dozen subordinates.

  The numbers in the army reached almost 1000 units and among the members, there were 100 cavalry.

  Very slowly Akor was starting to divide the units by specific position. Warriors were divided between shield guard and front line. Archers were back line along with magi. Cavalry remained between the two when they needed to rush. All the cavalry were heavy cavalry for the moment. They were imps and minogida armed in fully copper gear and used spears as their main weapons.

  They weren’t extremely skilled as one would expect but it wasn’t bad either. At most they would just rush and come back. They had trained on wild goats during most of the week after the skill was formed and the cavalry was built.

  Now after a week, Akor began to spread the units and send out scouts. Because of the terrain, there were actually limited numbers of pathways that could be used to reach the town. As such, a scout was sent to each of the discovered paths and simple pit traps were dug along them.

  When any surge of demons came, they would run back and the town would know which direction the imps came from.

  The construction would last for 6 hours as soon as the project was placed, Akor gathered all the material and a very large number of workers long before this to decrease the time as much as possible, if possible at all.

  “Are we ready?” Akor asked.

  “Yes my lord.” “Yes master!” Valring and Adok said.

  He nodded
and opened the construction menu and picked the temple. In the cleared space that would house the large stone temple, which in the image showed a simple dark stone cathedral, and placed it.

  Do you wish to start this major construction project?

  “Yes.” Akor said.

  Woosh!

  The land was instantly flattened perfectly by the system and the architects got a prompt to go build. They would get a major experience boost because it was a mission for them.

  The architects shouted and took out simple leather whips and began to move the workers to start working.

  BOOM!

  Suddenly the sky turned blood red and covered in dark clouds. It was like the heavens had been angered and would crash heavenly retribution upon them.

  Ding!

  Due to you praying to Pyarus, God of Education, as well as angering the evil demon gods, they have ordered all demons to destroy your capital city and the temple that you are building.

  Pyarus, due to having reached close to 50% of awakening has felt the disturbance against your people and using a little bit of power, he has extinguished the control of the gods over your demons minions and subordinates.

  God Quest:

  Proof of Faith

  You have begun to build a temple for your patron god. Because it is one of the enemy of the awakened gods, they have decided to extinguish your attempt to further improve the generation of faith power through the construction of a temple.

  You must survive the surge of demons that wish to extinguish your life and efforts.

  Objective:

  Survive through the construction of the temple, 0:00:00/6:00:00

  Reward:

  10% increase in god’s faith for god quest

  Improved god blessing

  Opens nation pantheon

  Failure:

  Territory destruction

  Akor’s eyes widened because he didn’t expect it to generate a quest, and it was automatically accepted since the construction had already begun as the workers began to grab and toss the material into the clear zone where it was magically absorbed.

  Akor felt a greater amount of pressure because he began to think this would not be as simple as he originally thought.

  “Send out the message to the players, depending on contribution, we will award all the players who help protect the town and temple with armor and weapons.” Akor said.

  Ding!

  You have generated a quest for all players in the territory

  Territory Quest:

  Demon Invasion

  The god of the demon lord happens to have many enemies, because of this, the enemy gods have forced wild evil demons to invade your town.

  Demon Lord Akor has commanded everyone to aid in the defense of the town.

  Objective:

  Survive through the construction of the temple, 0:00:00/6:00:00

  Reward:

  Armor and weapon depending on the contribution of each player: 0

  Experience points

  Failure:

  Territory destruction and loss of spawning zone

  This quest appeared for all the players. They all exclaimed in shock. Those who were outside rushed back to the town where Valring had arranged a sign up location. This was automatically generated by the system so that they could properly list the players and their contributions.

  Because of the buffer zone created by Akor and his demons even if the invading demons ran for hours it would still take a while. During this time the demons had not arrived, he set all the smithies to produce forged clubs for the players.

  This would give a small edge, probably, to the players and improve the city’s chances. The army of NPC and player demons were soon split into four groups and Akor waited for the news of incoming demons.

  The entire territory quickly became active as players and NPCs ran to and fro doing preparation work. The walls of the town could handle people walking because it was built for defense and there were watch towers. Tapping into the resources of the town, Akor transformed all the remaining stone and wood into defense material.

  Large stones, sling ammo, heavy logs and such defensive resources were prepared using what he had available.

  It could be said that the defensive battle against a lord with several official towns was extremely hard because the territory resources were united so he could pull resources from the other towns, or transfer it to them.

  Still, for close to two hours there was no news until finally the scouts began to return.

  From the south, west and north west demons were surging. Each side had close to a thousand meaning three thousand enemies were coming.

  The town’s complete army reached a little over 1000 but considering that it was a defensive battle and that a number of demons might get weaker due to the traps, they were not exactly at a disadvantage. What’s more the equipment of the army was far better since the army demons were equipped with copper gear.

  The only regret was that Akor didn’t have many Tier 2 demons even after upgrading the demon huts and housing the two Tier 2 demons in them.

  Of the two Tier 2 demons, only Morrath, the giant imp, was useful at this time. He had obtained the warrior class and had armor and weapon on the level of commander prepared, that is, full armor and weapon. He was also given a large copper axe that needed two hands to wield.

  It was currently the most intimidating demon in the town by far after putting on the copper armor.

  Akor’s armor was just leather armor since he did not like close up battle. His plan wasn’t to battle he would stay on the wall managing the troops from the watchtower at the gate.

  Of course, he would still use magic when needed because his demon mana was much stronger than common Tier 1 mana. A few demon fireballs could definitely tip the balance in a few areas.

  On the walls, archers lined up with an imp or minogida mage every dozen meters. Training magic wasn’t easy, much less for demons.

  “Get ready.” Akor’s voice sounded.

  The tense air made it hard on the army, soon news of the second scout arrived when the army was nearing the villages. The villages were all emptied out so besides passing through, the demons just rushed. The first wave arrived from the north.

  There was only Tier 1 demons with a level range of around level 3-5 at most. As explained, demons grow as their stats increase so one can simply look at their sizes and know an average of their level.

  “Magi! Archers! Fire!” Akor’s voice resound.

  Suddenly a faint glow appeared over all the archers. This was [Attack Order], Akor’s class skill for commanding his minions and subordinates which gave a small buff in strength to all affected units.

  All the archers pulled back the string and shot together while the magi lifted up the simple demon wood staffs made for them and conjured up fireballs and shot them out.

  The wave drew an arc in the sky before landing on the incoming wave of demons.

  BOOM! Roar!

  Pained roars came from the demons as the fireballs and arrows landed. The fireballs burst sending a few imps flying while the arrows hit many of the demons in the chest or head causing fatal damage.

  “Fire!” Akor shouted using attack order again, and another volley came flying into the air followed by another barrage of fireballs spread wildly along the incoming wave.

  This time, with the wave closer, they struck even more demons making them roar in pain.

  “Workers and players, prepare the anti siege resources!” Akor shouted from the watchtower and the demons quickly began to transport rocks and wood to the top of the wall. With one final volley of arrows and magic, the demons reached the wall. A number of them died in the battle.

  “Archers and magi, retreat off the walls! Warriors and players get on the wall and start killing the demons near the wall!” Akor shouted.

  The archers and magi quickly got off the wall but behind the wall was a clear area where Valring was shouting for them to gather at. “You all, fro
m here, fire the bows and magic!” she commanded.

  They growled and pulled the bows and at the command they shot over the wall.

  The players and warriors on the wall were quickly pulling and tossing the rocks and wood on the demons.

  Due to the danger below, there were a number of demons that died from being crushed or from fatal head wounds.

  They were all happily gaining experience at a fast rate.

  Only Akor wasn’t obtaining experience because he obtained it when he went out of combat mode.

  After about half an hour the demon wave was cut by over half. At this point some of them began to feel fear towards the powerful force they were trying to invade and began to retreat.

  Like it came, the wave, starting from one side, soon withdrew completely.

  They distanced themselves about 500 meters far out of the range of magic and arrows.

  He knew they were waiting for an opportunity so Akor would not give up this chance. “Open the gates and retrieve the resources! Archers and magi, man the walls and remain at the ready!” Akor shouted.

  The walls were quickly occupied by the archers and the gates opened. Players and workers all rushed out and began to pull the rocks and wood as well as gathering arrows in the range of possibility.

  By the time most of the resources were cleaned up and the corpses removed from the walls, so that the demons could not use it as a pile to climb the wall, three hours had passed since the start. Finally the second wave appeared from the south.

  This was when the real challenge would begin.

  “Valring, command the battle on the gate, they are weakened to half of the original wave. I will take most of the archers, magi and players to defend the south wall. They will be coming from up ground so it will be harder for us.” Akor said.