Life Reset: Conquest (New Era Online Book 5)
Page 27
The malnourished-looking boy couldn’t have been older than 13. The golden glint caught his full attention, and he approached hesitantly. Several other equally scrawny-looking youths followed him.
Riley brightened. “That’s genius. We need 200 believers, and we have exactly 200 …” His face fell as he finally realized what it meant.
Misa patted his shoulder sympathetically. “Sorry, chap, looks like dinner will have to wait.”
15 - Down Time
I squinted as my body slowly materialized back into the game.
Vic, I replied mentally, scanning the area. I’d appeared in the hills outside Woodhaven, and the area around me was empty. My absence had been long enough for the game engine to clean up the battlefield, so there weren’t any bodies in sight. Where is everyone?
I see, I said slowly. How long was I away?
Sure.
Dark Mana spell school level increased to 55.
Faith spell school level increased to 40.
War Party Leader skill level increased to 54.
That’s it? I asked. I spent hours in combat, and that’s all I got?
He had a point.
I dismissed the notifications and walked through the open field toward the hastily fixed palisade around the hamlet. As I walked, hob soldiers stood at attention and banged their armored chests in salute while Ogres lowered their heads in deference.
I found my allies sitting around a campfire sharing a meal. Savol spotted me first and hurried to his feet. “Chief is back!”
“Hey, everyone.” I smiled at my friends. “What’s up?”
Julee grinned back at me. “We should ask you that. How’s real life? Are cars still a thing?”
I shrugged. “No idea, I don’t get out of the building much. I just attend meetings and go through physical checkups before they send me back here.”
Malkyr winced. “Sounds … invasive.”
I rolled my eyes. “You have no idea.” I looked at Sullivan. “Any news?”
“Not really,” he said. “We’re still a few days’ travel from the more populated parts of this region. There aren’t many settlements before Whitebanner and Storg.”
“Those are the two towns that led the army against us, right?”
“Yeah. From what we learned, they supplied the professional soldiers. The rest were drafted militia from the smaller settlements. With most of their forces gone, we should have an easy time taking over those two towns. Once we do, we’ll effectively be controlling the entire southern half of the region and within striking distance of Everance.”
“Which means,” Hoshisu said dryly, “that they will be within striking distance of us. Taking those two towns will put a great big target on our backs. They’ll finally see us as a serious threat.”
“Good,” I said. “Because they’re in for a serious fight. What about the loot we gathered from the fallen enemies?”
“Not bad,” Sullivan replied. “All together, we have enough items to fully equip another 2,000 soldiers, and we confiscated their supply carts with barrels of arrows and about 15,000 units of field rations.”
“Excellent.” I looked around. “Any sign of Ragnar?”
“The kid ran away, Chief,” Kyth said. “We tried talking some sense into him, but he wouldn’t hear it – ran straight toward the nearest town.”
“Idiot.” Hoshisu’s nostrils flared. “They’ll kill him on sight.”
Seeing as the ex-dwarf’s disposition was somewhat less friendly than a certain catgirl, I had to agree with her assessment. “I guess we’ll see him back soon enough, then.”
“So what’s the plan, Chief?” Malkyr asked.
“We’ll wait for Sullivan’s scouts to report back. In the meantime, I’m going back to the valley to check up on things. See if I can use some of our newfound supplies to increase the size of the army. What about Akzar’s forces, by the way?”
“Soldiers go back,” Savol piped up. “Battle over. Need to rest and rebuild numbers.”
“Huh.” I swiped open the Settlement Interface. Luckily, I now had the option to switch between the various settlements under my clan’s control, so I navigated back to Goblin’s Gorge and checked the Vassal menu.
Akzar’s Militia Strength 62% [full restoration: 21 days]
“Huh,” I said again.
“You already said that, Chief,” Malkyr said good-naturedly. “What’s up?”
“We can’t resurrect the vassals’ soldiers like we can our own,” I explained. “But it looks like they recuperate in their own given time.” It was almost like a person’s health bar that slowly restored, repairing wounds.
Sullivan raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you resurrect some of Novenguard’s soldiers after we captured the town?”
I shook my head at the player. “Apparently, it was a one-time thing.”
“So we’ll be at half-strength for the time being,” Sullivan mused. “We need to increase our numbers even more, and I suggest we wait until Akzar’s troops fully recover before we move against Everance.”
“That will take them three weeks,” I said.
He shrugged. “All the more time for you to build up our strength. The Akzarian troops were highly trained and disciplined. Facing a superior enemy without their help is suicide.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said then I turned and smiled fondly at the goblinette who approached me. “Hey, there’s my girl.”
“Father! Did you see me fight?” Lirian said proudly.
“Sure did. You saved your old man’s hide back there.”
“Spellcasters wear little armor, and if I sneak up on them, they are easy to kill.” She winked at me teasingly.
I chuckled. “Is that so? You wanna go another round with me?”
“No, Father.” Lirian shook her head, though she was smiling. “You are the chief. I’ll go where you tell me to.”
I squinted at my daughter and realized she had reached level 35. She was growing up fast. “We’ll probably stay put for a few days. You can head back to the valley and see your mother.”
“I’ll visit Tenragan too; he still has much to teach me.” She walked to the nearby portal and disappeared.
“Man, it’s so weird you have an NPC daughter,” Malkyr muttered.
“She’s not a simple NPC,” Hoshisu countered. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Have you noticed?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“She’s curious and proactive, but most tellingly – she seems to go beyond the normal boundaries of her character role, and that’s supposed to be impossible. If I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect she was an actual player.” The white-haired woman let out a short laugh. “It’s like back in the old times when we first met, when I suspected you were actually an AI.”
I nodded slowly. “Lirian is not your average NPC, mob, or even VI.”
“And you once said she resembles the real you,” Hoshisu pointed out.
I stared at her. I knew the woman had a sharp analytical mind. “What does it all mean?”
“Hell if I know. But let me know if you ever figure it out.”
There was a commotion farther away from us. Everyone turned to look as Swarm arose, multiple torsos growing out of his central mass, shrieking in their haunted voices.
&nbs
p; “What the hell is going on there?” I asked.
As if to affirm his words, my golem’s voice floated up in a singsong tune. “This is a VI world, this is a VI, world … take it away Swarm!”
“But it wouldn’t be nothing,” the abomination growled, “nothing, without, a puppet to … kill, maim, destroy–”
“No, no, no,” Aidanriel chided. “You got it all mixed up again. It’s without a puppet for a twirl . Let’s take it from the top. And a one, and a two–”
I practically threw myself into the portal before they could go at it again.
I sighed in relief as I appeared in my clan’s quiet cathedral. I briefly considered going to visit Tika. But the workday had just started, and she was busy hunting. Besides, I still had some things to take care of myself.
I stepped outside and stood by the building’s exit, looking down at the valley spread before me. The settlement was brimming with activity; teams of goblins were working together gathering food, delivering resources to crafters, and coming back out with finished goods. Dozens of hob guards patrolled the roads, and a couple of Ogres were helping some builders by raising giant support beams around one of the buildings.
I inhaled deeply, taking a moment to savor my handiwork before descending to the ground level as Kaedric appeared.
The mandibled hob bowed his head. “Welcome back, my lord.”
“Hey, Kaedric,” I said. “We have a few things to discuss.”
“Quite so, my lord.”
“I understand the food rations we plundered from the defeated army have already been delivered?”
“Yes, my lord. As with all excess food, it’s been loaded into the Breeder’s Den.”
“Excellent. Once we’re done, I’ll recruit some more soldiers. How are the two settlement expedition teams working out so far?”
“The group assigned to Ogre Fort has constructed a Mining Hut and some rudimentary lodgings, and are now focusing their efforts on providing us with raw iron. There were some minor skirmishes with underground critters, but the soldier squad assigned to them was able to deal with the threat.”
“That’s good.”
“The group assigned to Raider’s Camp has begun mining coal,” the hob continued. “They’ve completed a full restoration of the existing facilities and are currently working on expanding them. They’ve encountered no dangers so far. I shall update you of any significant development.”
It seemed like my little experiment was working out. A movement drew my eyes. The two Ogres I saw earlier were putting up a wooden platform on top of one of the buildings. I gestured at them. “I see we’re making some upgrades.”
“Yes, my lord. I’ve instituted the settlement-wide upgrade we discussed. The end goal is to increase our buildings’ capacity and capabilities without claiming additional space. The researchers have finished a rudimentary lodging upgrade, so while they work on the more complex structures, I’ve assigned the builders to implement it. Current lodging capacity should be doubled once they’re done.”
I frowned. “That’s good, but weren’t the researchers working on some major project?”
“They were. They completed researching an upgrade to the Breeder’s Den yesterday.”
I stared at him. “Why didn’t you start with that?
He tilted his head. “I meant to inform you once the upgrade was completed, my lord. However, it will only come into effect once the building is fully repaired. We should have the required rank 3 metal available tomorrow. As for the other–”
“Hold on a sec,” I said. I was too curious to wait for tomorrow. I accessed the Research Center’s menu and browsed for the new blueprint.
Research
Expert-ranked building blueprints:
● Breeder’s Den: Essence Assimilator: enable consumption of unique ingredients to manifest unique units. [Available]
The text was a little vague, as usual, but a quick peek at the metadata behind it revealed that the upgrade allowed the Breeder’s Den to ‘feed’ on unique monster parts to confer some of that monster’s abilities to a summoned unit. And as luck would have it, I had a few monster parts in my inventory – namely, Pyrolith demon scales and the scorpion queen’s heart.
I looked up at my seneschal. “Alright, you were saying?”
Kaedric didn’t seem perturbed by the interruption. “I merely wanted to point out that since the planned upgrades will be performed on multiple buildings, it will put considerable strain on our existing resource yield.”
“How much strain?”
“We will need to expend 50 units of metal, 100 stone, and 200 wood every day. We have plenty in stock to maintain such an approach for several weeks.”
I could appreciate the undertaking. The hob was planning on turning my humble clan into a budding metropolis. “I’m okay with that. Just make sure to leave enough in reserve for an emergency.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Alright, what else?”
“Nothing that requires your attention, my lord.”
It sounded suspiciously like a dismissal. I decided to prod him a little more. “Are you sure about that?”
“Quite sure, my lord. I have things well in hand.”
That was about as close to ‘mind your own business’ as I’d ever heard from the seneschal. I snickered and patted his back. “Then I’ll leave things in your capable hands.”
Kaedric bowed before taking his leave. I looked around. Everything seemed to be going well. Tika was hunting, and Lirian was training. I finally had some free time for myself. I teleported straight to the library, took out the Runecraft skill book, and sat down to study.
***
Hours later, I was interrupted by two green hands that closed around my eyes. “Guess who?” my spouse’s voice said teasingly.
I chuckled and put the book down. “I didn’t hear you coming, you’re so sneaky. You seem to take great joy in ambushing me, so … if that’s Kuzai behind me, I’m going to be pissed.”
The hands retracted from my face and Tika moved in front of me, pouting.
“God, you’re adorable,” I said. “Much more than a certain wretched priest.”
She nestled onto my lap and put her arms around my neck. “A chief deserves more than that,” she whispered, sending ripples of pleasure through my sensitive goblin ears.
“I agree.” My breath caught in my chest as the wily goblinette nuzzled my neck while her fingers massaged my ears.
“I miss spending time with you,” Tika said softly. “I still think of our time together by the river.”
“Yeah, that was pretty incredible,” I agreed. About two weeks ago, I’d surprised Tika while she was hunting and took her for a romantic night together. I had killed a level 50 bear next to the river then claimed my mate on the soft grassy shore as a proper chief should. It was one of the most serene experiences I’d had inside the game, and I could see myself spending my remaining days with my loved ones in the same pastoral setting.
“You know …” Tika continued to whisper teasingly, “Lirian isn’t back at the house yet.”
I was about to respond when the information tendrils around me shifted in a way I hadn’t seen for quite some time.
Tika noticed my reaction and dropped her seduction routine. “What’s wrong?”
I gently moved her away and stood up. “One of the players just respawned.”
Interlude: Ragnar
The ex-dwarf kept running, leaving the hated monster-loving players behind. They couldn’t do this to him! Not him. He was Ragnar! The unshakable dwarf, the ultimate tank.
This wasn’t his first character. He had played NEO before … learned how things really worked before deleting his old character in favor of making the ultimate fighter. With the information and connections he’d gathered, the level 40 character he’d had before Shiva was able to defeat normal, level 60 players. And he had b
een planning to keep getting stronger. Unlike real life, NEO was a place where he could let go, take out his wrath on anyone who slighted him. No consequences.
But all that had changed when the VIs took over. Suddenly, Ragnar had to start all over. Again. He’d rebuilt his character to become even more powerful than before, but it had cost him dearly. He still had nightmares about the injuries he’d suffered, about succumbing to the temptations of one of the VIs who had pretended to be a god. The quests and conquests he had done in her name were difficult and took a toll on him, but he had gritted his teeth and did them anyway. All for the chance to get back at the bastard who’d upturned his sanctuary from the real world.
And that asshole had done it to him again.
Ragnar brought up a thin, chitinous arm and inspected the two vice-like claws at its end. His new form was hideous as well as limiting. He couldn’t grab a normal weapon or even throw rocks. The claws seemed strong, but they were no match for a proper sword.
At least his antlike figure seemed to have an almost inexhaustible amount of stamina. He’d been running for hours and hadn’t even gotten winded. His sight also seemed better, and though his surroundings had a red tinge to them now, he was able to see every blade of grass and every small insect that crossed his path.
He startled himself when his hand snapped down on its own and plucked a large beetle from the ground. Ragnar stared at the wriggling insect in horror. He was about to eat the damn thing. Something deep inside of him whispered that it would be delicious. He threw the beetle away in disgust and looked around.
He had left the monster army far behind – ten kilometers by his rough estimation, if not more. He didn’t have any equipment to defend himself with, and his inventory was wiped clean. Luckily, the area around him was considered civilized, relatively safe ground for low-level players to roam and hunt similarly low-level critters.