The Land: Raiders: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 6)

by Aleron Kong

  50

  +6% to Life magical strength

  *Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.

  Magical Defense I (Closed)

  25

  +2% to magical defense

  *Must specify spell school upon acquisition. May only choose spell school used during battle leading a War Party.

  Skilled Positions (Independent)

  400 to unlock each

  Available Positions:

  Tank III: LOCKED

  Scout III: LOCKED

  Healer III: LOCKED

  Lead by Example II (Personal)

  300

  LOCKED

  Movement Speed I (Open)

  100

  +10% Movement Speed

  *Must specify terrain type upon acquisition. May only choose terrain type that the War party has traveled on.

  Movement Speed V (Forest) (Open)

  1100

  +50% Movement Speed in Forests

  Favored Enemy I (Open)

  250

  When fighting a favored enemy:

  +10% Melee and Ranged Attack and Defense

  +6% Magical Strength (all Basic Elements)

  +4% Magical Defense (all Basic Elements)

  *Must specify enemy upon badge acquisition. May only choose enemies which have been fought while leading a War Party. Only one favored enemy per War Party formation.

  Trainer I (Closed)

  250

  +5% experience earned for War Party members

  Power Level III (Closed)

  500

  30% of the experience earned by the entire war party can be channeled to a specific member. The third rank of this badge allows the recipient to be three times beyond the Sphere of Influence and still receive the experience.

  *Experience recipient must be within Sphere of Influence

  Sphere of Influence II (Personal)

  500

  Increase range of Sphere of Influence by 200%

  He had three hundred and one points left. The question was, what to do with them. He agreed with Yoshi that keeping his people alive needed to be his top priority. He could increase their defense. From what he had seen, goblins were mainly melee fighters. If he put all of his eggs in one basket, he should be able to purchase five ranks in melee defense. It would cost almost all of his War points, but the armor his people wore would be 25% stronger. It could definitely mean the difference between life and death.

  The main downside that he could see was that increasing Melee Defense was a closed badge. It would only affect the people he put directly into his war party. At his initiate rank in the skill, that was only ten people. He had hundreds to help. Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, and Ranged Defense all had the same problem.

  What he needed was a way to help everyone in the band. Richter’s eyes fell on a badge he had never used before, Favored Enemy. It added a generous 10% to attack and defense across the board. It also increased magical attack power by 6% for all spells as well. Finally, it provided 4% spell defense. At least for the eight spell schools that comprised the Basic Elements: Life, Death, Light, Dark, Water, Fire, Air and Earth. Most importantly, it was an open badge, so it would affect everyone in his SoI. He had never really considered it, though, because of the large variability of monsters he faced on a daily basis. Those bonuses would only work against one type of enemy. The two hundred and fifty point cost was also nothing to sneeze at. For the upcoming battle, however, it might be just the thing.

  Richter was not one to waste time second guessing. He spent the War points. Before he could secure the badge, though, a list of enemies appeared before him. He would have to choose his favored enemy at the time of purchase. Animals, Reptile Beasts, Amphibian Beasts, Mammalian Beasts, Hybrids, Living Dead… The list kept going and was amazingly specific. He thought all the animals would be grouped together, but apparently, the magical ones were called ‘Beasts.’ Apparently, to get so many bonuses at once, he would have to be quite specific. He kept going through the list, marveling at the number of monsters he had encountered. The words were in plain, common script. Near the bottom of the list were the names of sentient races he had fought. Richter scanned through it until he found Goblin, and selected it.

  Congratulations! You have purchased Favored Enemy I and have chosen Goblin.

  Total War Points Remaining: 51.

  A new line appeared on his badge table, Favored Enemy II (Goblin). The second rank cost five hundred points. The original badge was still there as well in case he wanted to choose another favored enemy. It would be expensive though, and he could only have one per war party formation. Richter bought Magical Strength II (Life) as well, hoping that the boost in spell power might help his biomancers heal injured troops.

  Total War Points Remaining: 1.

  He walked over to Yoshi. The sword adept’s eyes glowed white again before he nodded and said, “Good. We leave in half an hour.”

  Richter rolled his eyes. Thanks, coach. He looked around at his forces and the other villagers that had gathered to wish them well. He wanted the noncombatants to be safe up in the meadow by the time they left, but Randolphus had told him it would be a horrible idea to try and force the point. Husbands and wives were saying goodbye for perhaps the last time. Children played, wept, or stood by stoically depending on their age and their understanding of what was happening.

  A cloud of multicolored pixies hovered in the air as well. There had been a loud, and mostly cute, outcry from the pixie children when they heard that they could not join the battle. More than ninety tiny voices had tried to explain to “Unca Wichter” that it really wasn’t his choice. They simply had to go with their meitu’meidons. The chaos seed had taken it in good stride at first, but as they continued to buzz around him complaining and persuading, he had to speak firmly to them. Ultimately, he had to make it an order. Now they flew above, sticking their tongues out at him when they thought he wasn’t looking.

  He put the children out of his mind. It became easier when he saw a familiar face walk up. Beyan made a beeline towards him with a creature trailing behind him. Richter easily recognized it, seeing as how he had killed it before. It was the decaemur knight, Jurgen.

  Richter had seen it following the arcane gnome around several times over the past few weeks. Initially, it had made him tense every time he had seen it, but two things brought him ease. One, to Beyan’s dismay, the bonding of the knight’s body and the weak Death spirit he had placed inside of it had caused some unintended effects. The knight had lost levels.

  When Richter had initially fought the undead, it had been a level thirty-seven monster. The knight had been able to summon undead minions or fight hand to hand with deadly effect. When Beyan had summoned a level three Death creature to animate the body, he had indeed been successful at tying the Death spirit to the body. As a result of the level differential, however, the knight’s level had dropped to twenty-seven. Even though it had upset Beyan to no end, Richter had felt a bit calmer knowing the undead killing machine was a bit less of a threat if things went tits up.

  The other thing that made it less dangerous was that the knight’s Intelligence and Wisdom had dropped severely as well. Beyan had also been bothered by that, but not surprised. The spell he used to animate the corpse, Summon Weak Zombie, apparently never preserved the magical abilities of the target. Again, Richter was somewhat relieved. If the knight went feral, fighting it would be hard enough without it summoning minions. True, it made the knight less effective in battle when fighting for him, but Richter still felt better.

  Besides, the knight was still deadly. It had preserved much of its combat potential and Strength. Not to mention the fact that its undead nature would let it ignore pain in battle. Richter hadn’t been sure that Beyan would come on the attack, but after using Analyze on the knight, he was glad the gnome had brought his pet.

  Name: Reclaimed Decaemur Knight Disposition: Angry

&n
bsp; This Decaemur Knight has been reclaimed from death a second time by the Death mage, Beyan. The union of the knight’s body and a weak Death creature, it has lost its magical abilities but remains a deadly foe in the martial realm.

  Level: 28

  Health: 430Mana: 20Stamina: 420

  Strength: 39

  Agility: 28

  Dexterity: 27

  Constitution: 43

  Endurance: 42

  Intelligence: 2

  Wisdom: 3

  Charisma: 2

  Luck: 12

  The knight was wearing high steel armor and carried a huge broadsword made of the same metal. Its original armor had given a bonus to casting Death magic. When it was clear that the reclaimed undead couldn’t cast spells anymore, the armor was sacrificed to the Forge. Three items, the helmet, boots, and greaves, had to be sacrificed, but the Forge learned the enchantment. Thankfully, the enchantment didn’t come with the requirement that only undead could use it.

  Alma had never warmed to the undead creature. The dragonling hissed at it from her perch on Richter’s shoulder when Beyan walked up.

  The gnome frowned, “It would please me if you would restrain your familiar from attacking my knight, Lord Richter.”

  The chaos seed chuckled, “What are you worried about? That thing is huge. Alma is the size of a cat.” That statement got him an annoyed look from the dragonling.

  “Then that is a very large cat,” Beyan responded.

  “That’s what she said,” Sion quipped.

  Richter rolled his eyes at his friend, but the sprite continued undaunted, “Nice to see you Beyan. What are you doing here? You do know that we are heading to battle, correct? Are you and your girlfriend there looking for a fight?” The chaos seed didn’t know why his friend always liked fucking with the Death mage, but since he usually thought it was pretty funny, he let it go.

  Beyan seemed like he was in a good mood and gave as good as he got, “I would ask where your girlfriends are, but I see them at the end of your arms. All ten of them.” The gnome locked eyes with Sion, clearly ready for more.

  Sion sniffed, and said, “Not bad.” Then he started walking away.

  “Next time, you can just say ‘Respect’ at the end,” Richter called after him.

  The sprite stopped and thought about it. Then he threw up a peace sign, something else he had learned from Richter, before saying, “Respect,” and continuing to walk off.

  Chuckling slightly at his friend’s antics, the chaos seed addressed the Death mage. “Looks like you’re feeling good,” he said. “What happened? Did you eat your Wheaties?”

  Beyan looked at him confused, “No. I did not eat wheat. I did, however, reach level eleven in Death magic! Only two more levels before I can animate skeletons.”

  Richter understood his excitement. The Death mage had found the bones of some rare monster and was just itching to reanimate it.

  “Are you sure you want to come for this fight?” Richter asked the gnome. “I am happy to have your strength and the sword of your pet, but you are risking your life.”

  “I am not afraid,” Beyan said, offended.

  “I am not saying you are. I would not blame you if you were. The truth is, I am afraid of what is coming. There is no shame in fearing battle. What I am trying to say is that I know you spent a lifetime hiding your powers. Today, you must do the opposite. You will have to unleash what you have kept secreted away. What I need is for you to embrace your power. What I need is a necromancer.”

  Beyan pulled himself up to his full four feet of height. The man’s face was a bit pudgy and his head was bald, but Richter did not doubt his sincerity when he said, “You have one.”

  Richter extended his arm and Beyan did the same. The two men clasped wrists, united in purpose. As they released their grip, Yoshi raised his voice to address the whole warband.

  “Move out.”

  CHAPTER 21 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG

  Yoshi formed a war party, including Richter within it. The sword adept’s Sphere of Influence was more than up to the task of including the hundreds of fighters, seeing as how it extended thousands of yards. One of the badges the fighter had invested in apparently increased the Fighting Spirit of any friendlies inside of his SoI. No matter how the day would play out, everyone had steel in their gaze as they marched.

  Terrod had arranged the Mist Village forces to have the melee fighters on the periphery as they moved. Despite the fact that they had to travel dozens of miles until they reached the goblin encampment, it didn’t mean that danger was far away. They were going through the forest as night was falling. In Richter’s experience, animals and monsters alike had a survival instinct so they should avoid a party as large as his, but there were exceptions. The undead especially didn’t seem to care if they lived or died. Which basically made sense.

  Richter had been going to form his war party, but Yoshi convinced him to wait. The adept’s reasoning was simple. If Richter was brought into Yoshi’s war party, then he could have all of the benefits without actually forming his own party, something that he could only do once every twenty-four hours. The reasoning was that if the higher ranked war leader were to fall in battle, his subordinates could reform their own war parties afterward.

  Yoshi also told him that different ranks of war leaders had different names. A novice was called a Strike Leader and an initiate, like Richter, was a Battle Sergeant. After that, the ranks were Battle Captain, Battle Leader, War Leader, and masters were Battle Lords.

  Richter was shocked to learn that Yoshi, as a Battle Leader, had a baseline war party size of one thousand fighters! Everyone in the battle group came under the umbrella of the adept’s War Leader skill and benefited from all of the badges and promotions that went with it. Richter was placed in the center of the group to maximize coverage of this Sphere of Influence, and they took off.

  Hisako and some of the other sprites had summoned their strike stags again, but Richter remained on the ground. He felt an instinctive need to remain on the same level as his people. As he walked, he tried to speak with as many of his people as possible. Always flanked by Sion, and with Alma flying overhead, his presence had a clear, calming effect on his people. It had been easy to forget as he dealt with his doubts and stresses that the men and women under his command felt the same fears. Yoshi was right. Many of them had never been in battle before. Seeing their lord walking around with an easy smile helped to put them at ease. Even the large form of the shale adder, slithering through the underbrush, was looked at fondly by his people. The snake had been accepted as just another show of their lord’s power.

  Hours passed, and miles were consumed. Yoshi led the way, guided by a static copy of Richter’s map that one of the Scholars had made. As they traveled, Richter kept trying to “feel” his mana field like Hisako had told him to, but had no success. Despite being frustrated, he kept at it. He also occupied his time reviewing his new spells: Minor Slow Heal, Weak Mend Bone, Summon Weak Gold Fox, Weak Static Life Shield, Summon Minor Chokespore Arachnid, Minor Chitin Carapace, Weak Static Earth Shield, Weak Mirror Image and Weak Magic Missiles.

  It was amazing how generous the Hearth Mother had been. Admittedly, he had been directly responsible for bringing back the pixie race, and thereby allowing the sprites to fulfill their destiny for the first time in millennia. He had also acted to merge the disparate sprite races back into their true bloodline, and thereby ends countless years of division and strife, but still, she had really hooked him up!

  The summoning spells were awesome. His saproling, while useful, got its ass kicked on a regular basis. He had to hope that the chokespore arachnid would be able to pack a bigger punch. The improved healing spell would also come in handy. His 50% boost to Life magic meant that the spell was three times as strong as his Weak Slow Heal. His Life Mastery also meant that Alma could cast the spell, which could literally mean the difference between life and death.

  The other spells were great too
, and if he was being honest with himself, it was the shield spells that excited him the most. The biggest problems he had had with battles in the past were against mages that could utilize shields. It basically gave the casters carte blanche to attack without fear of retaliation. The seconds it took to take the shield down could let them fry you or freeze your internal organs. It was more than awesome that he could enjoy that benefit himself now.

  The shields were also ‘static.’ Hisako had explained that it meant they had a fixed number of health points. Once those points were depleted, the shield was gone. The other broad category was apparently called ‘active.’ It included shields that you could continually feed magic into. It made for a much stronger shield apparently, but also carried a high risk of spell backfire if it did collapse. In a battle, that senseless state was as good as a death sentence. Richter was more than happy with his static shield.

  Reading the description of the spell was also illuminating. The shields were great to have, but they seemed to have a serious weakness. The lower level ones anyway. The barriers would not stop attacks based on their own type of magic. It meant that if he came up against an Earth-based shield in the future, then his acid sphere and sonic attack spells should still be able to take the guy out. Even better, summoned creatures of that type of magic should still be lethal! He realized that this might be the biggest advantage for him knowing spells in all eight of the basic elements. His broad spell base would come in handy for his own attack spells. He should have enough Earth spells, for instance, to still be deadly even inside of his protective shield.

  One thing that he hadn’t expected was that these minor rank spells would be so much more expensive. He had thought that his five hundred points of mana were more than adequate. If these costs were representative of the initiate level spells, then he was woefully underprepared for a magical battle. It was a good thing that he had his short swords. What was that old saying? Blades never run out.