War aeternus 4 harbinger.., p.29
War Aeternus 4: Harbinger of Ash, page 29
Compared to the backwater mud hole that Lee had found when he first arrived in this world, Satterfield was practically a paradise at this point. The once-small hamlet now had giant stone walls encompassing vast areas of rich farmland; mechanical innovations designed to plow, till, and support the crops; great sanitation systems; and even bathhouses that were open to the public. The Dwarf whom Lee had met in the underground village that Meadhbh had tormented had contributed dozens of his own inventions and gadgets to the town as well. The quality of life in Satterfield had gone up tremendously along with its tourist rating.
During his trip home, however, Lee had picked up more than a few extra ideas from Jade that he wanted to implement. Since he had developed such an advanced and well-defended town, he figured that the best thing he could do now was work on what was outside the town rather than inside of it. And, since Kirshtein was now obsessed with taxing the trade and commodities flowing out of Satterfield, it only made sense for him to focus on improving transit and transportation. Even if Lee could easily move from one town to the other--and rather quickly with the use of the Krunklerump--the average merchant without any levels or fighting experience would find it to be a difficult but manageable journey. NPCs that hadn’t awakened to the game world’s nature like Ling didn’t have the ability to use inventories, so transporting goods across rough and wild terrain created difficulties. If Lee wanted people to carry goods to and from Satterfield, he needed to build roads, and he needed them to be protected to a degree.
Deciding to make that project Jade and Lee had talked about together the first concern of his, he put it in the order right away. I want to make stone-paved roads from Satterfield to Kirshtein, with guard towers at key points between them to protect traders.
That much stone laying and tower building is going to eat up 45% of your total mana. Are you sure you want to do that?
Yes, I’m sure.
Your mastery of Spirit Builder has progressed from the rank of Initiate Level 5 to the rank of Initiate Level 6. This skill allows one to use one’s Spirit and accumulated wealth to remotely undertake improvement projects in towns and cities under one’s control.
Due to improving Spirit Builder, you have received +1 Intelligence. Current Intelligence: 319.
Congrats! You managed to spend almost half of your mana before potentially going into a tough fight or trap-ridden hall that might cost you your life! I’m glad to know that the lessons from your battle with Meadhbh have taught you well and that you’re still conserving your mana properly. Should I deduct a point from your Wisdom stat for yet another reckless and potentially life-ending decision?
Lee chose to ignore the insults and just make sure that he had his proper manners. He knew that the system might, at any point, withhold even more information from him. Thank you for setting up the project.
You know, when I asked you about Satterfield, I wasn’t telling you that you needed to spend your mana, right? You know it’s possible to not use a skill just because you have it? Even if you say please, if you keep doing things that might get you killed, I’m not going to help.
Awww . . . Lee let a mischievous grin spread across his face. You really care, don’t you? He suppressed a laugh, not wanting to wake up Ling, who was still holding onto him like a koala hugging a tree.
No. Whatever. Fine. Just die on your own. I’ll be sure to watch it and play it back multiple times for others.
Lee wasn’t sure why, but more often than not, he enjoyed the back-and-forth banter he had with the system, even if the exchanges seemed to get weirder and weirder each time.
Sighing to himself, he settled into the bed and let his mind drift back to his conversations with Jade and thoughts of the first dream that had been forced upon him. It took a while, but he was finally able to drift to sleep.
-----
As the sun broke through the cracks in the tent, Lee woke up to the sound of activity as everyone in the camp moved about outside.
“Good morning,” Lee said as a means of trying to wake up Ling and get her off of him.
“Go back to sleep, dear,” she just mumbled again, throwing a hand up and putting it over his mouth.
“Nope!” Lee freed his mouth to speak, removing her hand, and shifted his weight to escape the bed. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Ling shot up.
“What happened?” she asked, looking at him wide-eyed. “Did we get attacked?”
“I did,” Lee responded with a small laugh. He was, in fact, telling the truth twice over: He had been attacked in his nightmare by the dream woman, and he had also been hug-attacked by Ling when he had tried to get up.
“Ah . . .” Ling looked at him hopefully. “Was I . . . helpful?”
“For the first attack . . .” He started picking up stuff while talking, getting ready to store the entire setup in his inventory as soon as they got out of the tent.
“There was more than one?” she asked.
Lee saw what he thought was panic on her face and decided to quickly correct it. “No, not more than one dream . . . but you pinned me to the bed and wouldn’t let me up at first,” he explained.
“Ah! So, you’ve had a busy morning!” Jade interjected as she popped into the tent.
“Jade!” Ling looked up at her from the bed without actually moving. “This isn’t what it appears! We didn’t do anything!”
You don’t have to deny it so vehemently. Lee felt a little wronged by how adamantly she denied having slept with him, but he brushed it off and moved on.
“No reason to be modest,” Jade argued. “We’ve got bad guys to kill. You can spend your time shoring up that cheater’s defense later.”
Cheater’s defense? Don’t put thoughts in the poor girl’s head. Lee knew that listening to two women bicker, even if only one was being aggressive while the other was just denying stuff, would never be good for his health.
“What? You’re leaving before even giving her a parting kiss?” Jade snickered and then puckered her lips. “Or me one?”
Lee just shook his head and chuckled to himself as he finished packing up. “Like you said: We’ve got people to kill.”
-----
It took half a day more of riding as fast as they could to reach Birnefeld. When they finally arrived, Faustus was waiting to greet them by the entrance along with the men he had captured.
“Greetings, Lord Lee,” Faustus shouted, bowing low as Lee hopped off his Krunklerump. “These are the culprits you asked us to apprehend through”--Faustus looked over at one of the golems and squinted as he studied the mouse--“um . . . through . . . umm . . . I’m sorry, my lord.”
“Ethan,” Lee answered, preempting the question. “Just call the little guy Ethan. He’s grown fond of the name.”
“Ah. And what are the others called?” Faustus’s tone relaxed at Lee’s genial response.
Lee gave the man a wry smile. “Ethan. All of them are called Ethan.”
“But”--Faustus looked confusedly between two of them--“how do you . . . How do you tell them apart?”
“Apart?” Lee chuckled. “Faustus, they aren’t separate entities. They’re all me, and they’re all Ethan.” He probably should have kept that truth to himself, but he enjoyed watching Faustus’s face twist about as he tried to process what was being said. The idea of a hive mind probably wasn't something that Faustus had to deal with often, so the concept that Lee was Ethan and that all the golems were the same had left the normally-composed guild leader very confused.
“I always knew you were a rat bastard,” Dave proclaimed, smacking Lee’s back. “Glad to see you admit it for once.”
“Hey!” Jade snapped at Dave. “Don’t you go calling my rat bastard such a name!”
“Indeed!” Miller cried. “Have you no sense of justice? How dare you call your rat bastard lord a rat bastard!!”
“Miller, you joined the joke too?” Dave said incredulously as he looked over at the Firbolg. “That was a surprise.”
“What joke?” Miller asked.
“The drunken Firbolg is right,” Augustus piped in from above. “I never married your mother . . . so you are technically a bastard. Since you share a sort of consciousness with the golem, you’re a genuine bastard lord of rats, so . . . you’re my little rat bastard!” Augustus laughed boisterously, and Lee heard what sounded like Mary smacking him followed by her saying, “Hey! He’s your son. Stop being so mean!”
“Lord Lee,” Faustus began, drawing attention back to himself, “what should we do with these two?”
“I need to know everything they know . . . and I was going to torture them myself.” Lee spoke loudly enough that the men could hear him, and they immediately protested by mumbling into the gags that prevented them from talking. “But . . . maybe you could have someone take care of that for me while I go work my way through the tunnels. I need to find out what else is still there. I’m sure they had a crew clean up their operations after the noise your group made, but it’s still something I’m going to have to check out.”
Faustus straightened his back a bit at the mention of what he and his crew might have missed. “Lord Lee, I can have the group ready to escort you in less than five minutes. Give me time to grab them, and we can protect you in the tunnels.”
“Boy,” Dave gasped out amid hearty laughs, “we don’t need protection. Just go have fun torturing the men in a dungeon or whatever and leave the rest of this to Lee.”
Lee looked over at the old man, who already had his hand resting on the pommel of his flail in anticipation of another fight. “I think I’ll be the one to tell people what they should do, Dave. But thank you very much.”
“Fine! But I’m not wrong, am I? You were going to sit them out since they don’t have breasts, weren’t you?”
Lee facepalmed. Actually, a few of the members of Faustus’s team are women, but . . . Lee let the thought linger in his mind for a second before shaking his head. “That’s not the reason I’m going to tell them to stay here.”
Dave coughed incredulously, clearly not believing Lee’s objection. “You can’t even say that with a straight face. Just look at the people you surround yourself with, you lecherous old rat bastard. There were twenty-something people in Brigid’s group, and you took the only one with a decent-looking face and a set of--”
“DAVE!” Lee snapped, cutting the old man off. In truth, it took a great deal of effort not to join in on the cajoling or laugh at everything Dave said. Watching the faces of those around them, however, he knew that he couldn’t allow himself to be questioned too much in front of others. It might sow doubt in the future or inspire someone to think they knew better than he did at a key moment. “The reason they’re staying here is because they still need to level up their troops, and where we’re going, they might die given their low levels. I’d like to think I could trust them to hold their own, but given how easily five of us were able to defeat so many of them in battle, I don’t want to take those chances.”
Faustus, who had been nothing but smiles previously, looked like he was punched in the gut at Lee’s last comment. “Yes, my lord.” He closed his eyes a second and took a deep breath. “I won’t allow myself to be that weak in the future.”
“Right,” Lee answered back. “I know you won’t. Your future is limitless. I’ll leave a golem with you to assist in finding prey and help make leveling quicker. Just make sure that you have the right people get the information out of those hostages, and”--Lee took a second to reach into his inventory and pull out a bag full of coins--“this should more than cover the job your men did in the tunnels. Well done.”
“Thank you, Lord Lee.” Faustus took the money and gave a quick bow of the head before straightening back up and looking over at the captives. “Will there be any limits to what we can or can’t do to get information out of them?”
This was one of those questions that always turned Lee’s stomach a bit. He hated having to make such a decision, but it was unavoidable. He just wished people would get the job done and not tell him about the details, but as the commander, that wasn’t a luxury he had. Taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes for a second, he finally came to a decision. “Yeah, there is a limit. Keep the body intact. Don’t go overboard. I don’t want them mangled beyond recognition.”
“But--” one of the men behind Faustus began to protest, but Faustus slammed his shield into his comrade’s face like a flash of lightning and laid the man out, leaving him to stare up at him in shock from the flat of his back.
“I apologize, Lord Lee. We understand your instructions and will take care of the job immediately,” Faustus answered. Then, gathering the two culprits up, he vanished into the town and out of Lee’s sight.
“You’re going easy on those bastards? Even after what they did to Brigid?” Miller asked. “I think they deserve justice. I think we should rip the muscles from their calves and then peel away their forearms and then their biceps and triceps. We should use that great lightning stick of justice from your world to probe them so that their body tries to move. That way, whatever’s left of those muscles will just twitch while we watch the bastards die from the lightning stick. This is the justice they deserve.”
Lee felt that something was off when Miller’s description failed to make him even the least bit queasy. Normally, at the very least, he would have been a bit unsettled. This time, however, he simply accepted Miller’s torturous ideas, and a smile drew itself across his face as the mental image of what his Firbolg companion was describing played out in his head. “Yeah,” Lee agreed. “That is what they deserve. But I want to be there when they suffer. I want to see it with my own two eyes.”
Ling sighed softly at Lee’s remark but failed to register any actual complaint.
“This way,” Lee said, and he led the way to one of the hidden ports that went down into the tunnels. Thankfully, he had already ordered Faustus’s men to clear out most of the traps after they captured their hostages. Lee had already wasted enough time picking his way around traps in the past, and he been fortunate enough to have someone else do it for him this time.
“It’s just as I feared,” Lee commented when he realized that the bodies from the people Faustus had killed were gone. “They know we’re coming. They know we’re coming, and they’ll be prepared for us, or they’ll have left already.”
“What was it like yesterday? Ling asked. She spun about in place, attempting to take it all in. The telltale streaks of now-dried blood were strewn about like gallons of paint flung from thirty brushes, and it was impossible not to be fascinated by it. Lee found it amazing how fast blood would pump out of a human body when a critical hit landed and one’s blade cut the perfect artery. “This place is still so bloody.”
“It was professional, actually,” Lee answered, remembering how the group had dismantled each band of enemies with clean precision. “Faustus is a skilled commander. We could learn a few things from him.”
Dave smacked Lee’s back with a thump. “That modesty doesn’t suit you. You need to harness that anger you had earlier when talking to Faustus, that bravado. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong: You just gotta convince people you know what you’re talking about. Don’t go complimenting others. Just use those beady, rat-bastard eyes of yours to figure them out like all the other good monarchs.”
“I think that openness to learning is the pinnacle of what makes a good leader,” Ling countered. “It’s good that you can admit that Faustus has much to teach us. I think even the dumbest fool carries with him a kernel of truth worth hearing.”
Dave turned away as if the conversation didn’t interest him anymore, but he kept talking all the same. “After the first two decades, I was the same as you. After the next few, I learned that most of what everyone else offered you in the form of advice would cost you more than time. My old boss was a man of the people. He studied constantly and was righteous in all regards. He was the perfect ruler--but he lost his throne and the people that respected him in one fell swoop from an underhanded bastard. If he hadn’t been so forthright and upfront with what he knew and what he could do, and if he had intimidated people a little more, he might have lived long enough to meet the people’s champion, the savior of us old bastards in the arena, and not ended up with his head rolling through some sewer runoff after the duel.”
“You had decades to learn before you turned into a curmudgeon. I still have a ways to go,” Lee shot back. “Anyway, if I actually took your advice, I wouldn’t listen to you at all since you think it’ll end up costing me more in the long run. You’ve created a bit of a conundrum, you see, so I’m just going to continue being me.”
“Of course you are,” Dave grumbled. “You uptight kids always play the goody-goody role. If you insist on listening to someone’s advice, listen to this: Go get yourself some liquor and a bunch of beautiful women and then take a week off from all this political crap. Trust me, it’ll leave you a lot--” Dave suddenly stopped his rant, and his head snapped around, leaving him to stare at the closed door on the other side of the room. This one was opposite to the direction they had entered, and it led deeper into the tunnels.
“What’s wrong?” Lee asked curiously.
“Nothing, I just . . .” Dave stepped closer to the door, this time speaking in a whisper. “I got a weird feeling that I saw something on the other side of this door. Like a shadow visible through the crack at the bottom.”
“You think someone is listening in on us, waiting for us to open it?” Lee whispered back.
“Yeah. That.” Dave craned his head to the left and then the right as if he could see around the large wooden door. “Or maybe I’ve just been paranoid about doors lately given everything that has happened with them.”
