“Raffiel,” he said.
“Well, Raffiel, the man you call Jalel abandoned all of you without a second thought. I will not betray your legion the same way. Do you and your squadron pledge allegiance to me?”
“We do, Phantom Lord,” Raffiel said without a hint of hesitation in his voice.
DING!
I heard a flurry of sounds and noticed that every Knight in front of me had had a Ga’em prompt opened up in front of them. They all tapped on the screens, and for a moment I was confused. But a second later, it all made sense.
DING!
Congratulations! A Squadron of Knights from the Dark Alliance have become citizens of your village, Ikarius. Village population has been increased by +30.
DING!
Congratulations! Ikarius has now obtained:
Fighting Force!
Army submenu unlocked! Make sure to provide your army with enough equipment and resources to keep them happy and well prepared for battle.
DING!
Congratulations! Ikarius’s level has increased twice!
Level 3!
You’re on the way to creating a place worthy of living in. You have obtained 4 special skill points to use on the development of your village. Spend them wisely!
Sooo many screens. I chuckled as I swiped away the ones that had already come up. An army sounds really cool, though. Especially if I’m going to command one that used to be part of the Dark Alliance.
DING!
You have unlocked a new upgrade:
Empty Moat!
Create a moat around your village and watch as pillagers and plunderers sink down into the darkness.
DING!
You have unlocked a new upgrade:
Guard Hounds!
Summon these loyal beasts to patrol the village borders for any threats to Ikarius.
TRING!
You have unlocked a new village special skill:
Sundown Haze!
A dark haze has a 10% chance of enveloping foes that enter the village after sunset and leaves them disoriented for a few seconds. Actual effect duration depends on stats of the intruder.
Daaamn, I thought, grinning widely. I looked at Raffiel, the leader of the Knight squad. “I acknowledge your allegiance,” I said.
He bowed. “Thank you for your hospitality, my lord,” he said, switching from addressing me as Phantom Lord the moment he’d sworn allegiance to me.
“You better be careful with these men, Zoran,” Nyx said. “Men who are willing to defect to the enemy are ones who will defect away as well, with no hesitation.”
We’ll see. I grinned. I figured the death I’d caused in front of their eyes had told them more than enough about what I’d do to people who opposed me. Sure, I’d only played the role of an Evil Overlord, which really wasn’t who I wanted to be, but for all intents and purposes, that’s who I was for now.
“Zoran!” a voice yelled, and my ears perked up.
I looked to the side and saw Freya running down the street, the little Kobold at her side and a black-skinned elf in her arms.
Ijyela. My eyes widened.
“She’s fine,” Freya said as she neared me. “I found her unconscious in one of the houses, probably knocked out after taking on some Knights. I’ve given her some health and mana potions, so she should be fine.”
“Good.” I nodded. I noticed how calm Freya looked, even though there was a squadron of Knights from the Dark Alliance right behind me.
She seemed to have noticed my confusion and put a smile on her face. “Apparently, the assigned leaders for a village also get Ga’em notifications about the village. Such as when new forces join our ranks.”
“Ah,” I said, surprised. “That’s actually very convenient.”
“I mean, it also makes sense,” she said. “I don’t have access to a village submenu within my Ga’em menu, but I’m alerted about things that happen with regard to the village, like intruder attacks, leveling up, and unlockables.”
“That’s good,” I said. “Okay, I’m going to go take care of these Knights. I’ll be with you in a second.”
She nodded and I turned to Raffiel. “Knights,” I said, and all of them immediately knelt.
Wow, did not think they were that disciplined. I chuckled.
“Well, knights are still Knights, even if they’re from the Dark Alliance,” Nyx said.
“What do you wish, my lord?” Raffiel asked.
“I will fix the village’s broken infrastructure in a bit,” I said. “I want you and your men to go around and find houses to occupy, four of you in each. We will set up proper living arrangements for you as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, my lord!” he said, a sudden happiness in his voice, as though he hadn’t expected me to be so generous.
I nodded and slid open my Ga’em menu once again.
Stats
Items
Equipment
Skills
I tapped on Upgrades, and a new screen opened up.
Upgrade
Cost
Time
Village Repairs
650000 Sol
3 days
Build Tavern
100000 Sol
1 day
Build Farmlands
300000 Sol
2 days
Build Water System
500000 Sol
5 days
Build Empty Moat
500000 Sol
4 days
Raise Guard Hounds
450000 Sol
10 days
Wow, that’s more than I’d expected, I realized, and I quickly tapped on everything. Money was no longer an issue, so I didn’t have to worry about costs. The Phantom Lord had quite the coin purse.
I wondered how exactly these upgrades would build themselves, and then I wondered no more. Forms of shadows and darkness sprang from the ground and sifted through the streets, moving rubble, debris and bodies aside as they did.
“I have no clue what those things are,” Nyx said. “Shadow workers?”
“Maybe,” I thought. They were all completely featureless, basically just dolls of darkness that had sprung out of nowhere.
“My lord, what are those creatures?” Raffiel asked.
“Shadow workers,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure that’s what they were called.
“Intriguing,” he said.
“The village will be ready in three days,” I said. “In the meantime, you can take up residence in the first set of houses that are repaired. There is a well close to the outskirts, and a few berry trees around the village. That is all I can provide for the moment. Better sources of food and water will be completed in a few days.”
“That is enough, my lord,” he said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
He turned around to face his squadron. “Knights! Move out!” he yelled, leading them into the streets in a march.
I smiled to myself, amused at how things had turned out in the end. When I’d first learned Ikarius was under attack, this was the last outcome I would have expected.
“Speaking of attack,” Nyx said, “we should probably work on upgrading our defenses as well.”
“Yeah.” I went back to my Village menu screen, and this time I delved into the Special Skills menu.
Skill Name
Level
Buffs
Mirror Shield
Level 1 (9% to next level)
Renders village invisible to enemies. Effect wears off if any damage is inflicted on it
Sundown haze
---
Has a 10% chance of surrounding intruders and disorienting them for a few seconds
The italicized text and the lack of a level meant these were skills that I hadn’t obtained yet. Furthermore, the background behind the skill was not translucent white but instead more of an opaque gray, which further suggested that the skill was locked.
I noticed a small section at the top right of the screen, o
n the same level as the screen title.
Unassigned Special Skill Points: 4
That’s more than enough, I thought as I tapped on the Sundown Haze special skill option.
DING!
Would you like to unlock: Sundown Haze? Cost: 2 Special Skill points.
I tapped Yes at the bottom of the prompt, and the screen disappeared. I didn’t see any notifications pop up after that, but I was quite certain I’d bought the skill.
“Zoran.” Freya tugged on my arm. I turned and realized that Ijyela was stirring. The dark-skinned elf slowly got up, and she glanced at me, her green eyes still as haunting as ever.
“Where…” Her sudden change in expression showed she’d just recalled everything that had happened to her. “The Dark Alliance.” She jerked around. “We need to—”
“It’s all okay, Ijyela,” I said, walking up to her. “We’ve fended them off.”
“Oh,” she said, a little confused.
I stood beside her. “What…happened back there?” I asked.
“I…” She paused, searching for the words. “It had been about an hour since Freya had left me to guard the village. I noticed something dark on the horizon, and a second later, a strong burst of magic struck a few buildings within the village.”
It was probably Jelal, I realized.
“Yeah,” Nyx agreed.
“I tried to fight back, but there were far too many Knights for me to take them all on myself,” she said. “I was trying to head here, to the village square, but a stray rock from one the collapsing buildings hit me in the head, and then everything went blank.”
“Hmmm,” I said. “I still don’t get why the Knights attacked us in the first place, though.”
“Maybe you can ask Raffiel,” Freya said.
“I doubt he knows much,” I said. “He’s merely a squadron leader in the Dark Alliance. They probably didn’t tell him much other than ‘We’re attacking,’ or something of the sort.”
“Still, it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
“True.”
“What happened on your end?” Ijyela asked. “All I know is Freya suddenly charged after you. And, who is this young creature?” She pointed to Nazu, who stood quietly behind Freya, trying to hide behind her legs.
“Ah.” I paused, and everything about that situation ran through my mind. “It’s…a weird story.”
The green-eyed elf smiled. “I was expecting nothing less.”
“I see.” I chuckled. I told Ijyela briefly about the Black Guardians, and then about the Lumina Knights, especially the weird machine we’d seen. She didn’t seem to know what exactly that was, but she was quite bothered by the fact that the Lumina Knights were this far away from their home territory. She said it’d been a while since they’d headed to this part of the lands.
“I’m not sure what they could be up to,” she said. “Nevertheless, it’s odd that you would be attacked by two groups of people and then have your village attacked by a third.”
“This after three months of peace,” Freya added.
“There’s something going on,” Ijyela said. “There has to be.”
“It seems like it,” I said, still uneasy about what exactly it could be.
“I have a weird feeling we’re all going to be caught in the thick of things soon,” Freya said.
“I’d argue you already have been,” Ijyela added.
“Ugh,” I muttered. “So many complications.”
“What of this young Kobold?” she asked. “How did you find him?”
I opened my mouth, ready to tell the story of how we’d found him wounded and tied to a pillar. But I realized that was too traumatizing to bring up again in front of Nazu himself, so I refrained.
“That’s a story for another time,” I said.
Ijyela raised an eyebrow. “I see.”
DING!
Congratulations! You have unlocked the upgrade:
Spirit Guardian!
Due to your Spirit King ability, you can assign a spirit to help manage the village resources and status.
Whoa! My eyes widened. Nyx, are you thinking what—
“Yep,” he chuckled. “Do it.”
I quickly slid out the upgrade menu once again.
Upgrade
Cost
Time
Establish Spirit Assistant
1000000 Sol
5 minutes
“Wow, is that expensive,” I said, but I hit the upgrade anyway. “I wonder how effective this will be.”
“We’ll find out in five minutes,” Nyx said enthusiastically.
“Zoran?” Ijyela asked, snapping me out of my mental conversation, and I realized she’d called out to me a few times already.
“He was probably talking to his spirit friend,” Freya said, with a tone that didn’t quite convey whether she was amused or annoyed. And those were two very different feelings.
A shriek exploded through the air, and for some reason, I could tell exactly who it was coming from.
“Nazu!” I yelled, and I turned around—only to see that the young Kobold was no longer behind Freya.
“What the heck?” Freya exclaimed, spinning around in search of him.
“He must have wandered away on his own,” Nyx said.
“This way.” I charged down the street, trying to recall exactly where the sound had come from. It didn’t seem like it had been too far away from where we were right now.
I turned at the first corner and stopped immediately. There in front of us stood a Knight of the Dark Alliance, an ugly expression on his helmetless face. He had Nazu by the neck in one hand, and the other held a crystal of blood red.
He quickly noticed our presence, and a grin curled onto his face.
“You will never stop us, Eternal,” he chuckled.
He cast the jewel to the ground before I could even move, sending bright bursts of red shooting into our eyes.
A second later, when I could see again, I saw an empty street in front of us.
They’d disappeared.
***
CHAPTER TEN
“What the hell is going on?” I slammed my fist into the wall, crunching into the rock and probably adding a few extra minutes to the damage repairs.
“That man had a teleportation crystal,” Ijyela said, sounding a little surprised.
“But those are incredibly rare to find,” Freya said. “And very costly to purchase.”
“This is what I get for trusting these Knights,” I muttered.
“My lord?” Raffiel walked up to us. “You’d asked for me?”
“One of your men betrayed us, Raffiel,” I said, my tone sharp.
His eyes widened. “What?”
“I need to know who he was, and what his role within the Dark Alliance was,” I said.
“I don’t mean to be rude, my lord,” he said. “But all the men who pledged allegiance to you are still here. They are all still in the house we decided to stay in.”
“Damn,” Nyx said. “He’s right. I just checked the village’s current population, and it hasn’t changed from before.”
That Knight came in from the outside, then?
“He could have teleported inside the village.”
Shouldn’t we have been able to tell if someone was intruding?
“We should have,” he said. “But it’s possible there are ways to bypass that alert system. We both know how messy these info prompts can get at times.”
True
“My lord, what exactly happened?” Raffiel asked. “What did this betrayer do?”
“Not to worry, Raffiel,” I said, not wanting to divulge any unnecessary information. “I will take care of things.”
“I understand.”
“And keep an eye on your men,” I said. “I do not want to lose my faith in you lot.”
“Yes, my lord,” he said. “I assure you, you can trust us.”
“I hope so.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell him the
exact details regarding what happened?” Nyx asked. “He might have some insight into who the guy was.”
I can’t trust him yet. I don’t want to lean on him for help until I’m sure he’s on our side.
“Fine,” he said.
“We might be able to tell where this crystal took them to,” Ijyela said, picking up a stray piece of the shattered red jewel.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She nodded. “A red teleportation crystal has its destination preset,” she said. “So we might be able to learn where it was.”
“Very well, then. Can I leave that to you?” I asked.
“Certainly,” she said. “Give me an hour and I will give you something to go on.”
“Thank you.” I smiled.
“Freya, come with me. I may need your assistance,” she said, and the elves walked into the nearest house they could find.
DING!
Congratulations! You have obtained the quest:
Save Nazu!
The young Kobold has been taken away by a man in dark attire. Find the location they teleported to and go after them. Rewards: Unknown.
I quietly read the text on the screen and closed it, not really surprised such a quest had come up. The Ga’em was known to provide quests based on one’s desires and motivations, and so it followed that I’d get a quest like this.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 33
