Southern kingdom 2, p.1
Southern Kingdom 2, page 1
part #2 of Evolution Online Series
Southern Kingdom
Evolution Online Book 2
Author: D. L. Harrison
Copyright 2018. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Afterword:
About the Author
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
Book Description
Chapter One
A bright flash of light slightly preceded the loud crackling and deep rolling of thunder. The harsh rain sounded like a drum on the thin metal roof, and a loud whistling wind buffeted the closed shutters. A flash thunder storm had moved off the water, and the five of us sat around the table waiting for it to pass.
It’d been a week since we’d ended the threat of the goblins, for a generation. It’d taken me a lot longer than the usual two hours to incorporate all the concepts, then make use of them. After that, we’d created enchantments of our own.
The last couple of days we hadn’t really done anything except a little hunting and investigating. I’d been half convinced the race war would kick off as soon as the goblins were driven back, but apparently Gaia isn’t quite that mean. We’d gotten a lot of time to relax, and I’d gotten to know everyone a bit better without the stress of the goblins over our heads. Especially Gwen, the woman I’d fallen for and planned to spend a very long time with.
Gwen looked great in a fitted tunic and breeches that hugged her lissome and athletic body. The tightness wasn’t out of a lack of modesty, but required for when she donned armor. She had gorgeous curly chestnut hair, green eyes, and a cute heart shaped face with a smattering of freckles on her nose. She was both adorable, and quite sexy, at least in my opinion she was about perfect that way. For some reason she’d also chosen me, and I couldn’t imagine ever walking away from her. Fortunately for me, neither of us approached sex or relationships casually.
I knew I’d never have a dull moment with her around. She was endlessly brave, but not afraid to show her vulnerability at times. She was strong with sword, bow, and the magical sphere of Darkness. She was easy going about a lot of things, but could be very stubborn as well. She was complicated, but never spiteful. She also kept me on my toes, and wouldn’t put up with any crap, even if I was giving it to myself she’d set me straight. She was also physically affectionate, she liked to touch me, and even in that moment we were holding hands under the table.
Lyre was the second woman in our party, and an elf. She too was lissome, and an inch taller than Gwen at five foot seven. She had extremely light blonde hair, and warm gray eyes. She’d been very shy at first, but after getting to know her she’d opened up. She had a subtle needling sense of humor, and was often in a good mood. I’d become fairly good friends with her, but not as close as her and Gwen had grown. I’d caught them more than once whispering and giggling together, sometimes rather wickedly. I’d chosen not to investigate, despite my curiosity.
Lyre’s life mate, Anlyth, was the fourth in our party. He was hell in battle with a staff, as well as the magical spheres of Life and Earth. He was a bit taciturn, or at least gave that appearance at times, but I was fairly sure he was just an introvert. He was open enough, and generous with his knowledge if directly engaged in conversations. He just didn’t volunteer much. He was wiry and tall at six feet in height, with dirty blonde hair and green eyes.
Wynn, the final member of our party, was also an elf. He was wiry and the tallest at six foot two, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was a very serious person, and I couldn’t really blame him since he basically commanded the outpost, and had many elves under his command.
We were sitting around the table and eating an early lunch as we chatted. In truth, after the last two days of relaxing, I felt a little itchy to be doing something. The last thing I wanted to do was fall back on the boredom and stagnation of a life without challenge and growth. Over a thousand years of that in the old utopia had almost driven me insane. It probably would have, if I didn’t have access to mankind’s accumulated knowledge, and had studied the sciences.
Not that all that studying especially helped in a world of magic. Magic wasn’t real, but the magic system Gaia had instituted was surprisingly cogent, logical, and was full of hard rules and concepts. Even the theory of magic itself, that it radiated into our dimension from another as a field, made sense as a theory. Much like gravity and dark energy was theorized to come from other dimensions.
I cleared my throat, “It looks like the race war will be a while, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t move on?”
Gwen gave me a smile, and I knew she’d been thinking the same thing. She also didn’t want to merely accumulate luxuries and stagnate in it. We had growing to do, power to gain, evil to fight.
“I’ve been feeling that too. I’m curious about the human cities, and I’m pretty sure we’ve fulfilled the reason Gaia stuck us in the middle of nowhere by driving the goblins back. The Southern kingdom?”
That was true as well. Gaia hadn’t done us any favors, she’d stuck us in the middle of nowhere with no support or anyone else around. It had led to fast and quick leveling through the initiate levels, but only because we’d earned it the hard way and rose to the challenge.
Wynn nodded, “I suspected this was coming. I’m afraid this is where we must part company. I can’t leave. I’m in charge of this outpost, and even with the goblin threat suppressed, we need to scout and monitor the evil races so we aren’t caught unawares.”
Lyre said, “We could go though, Anlyth and I, I mean.”
I wasn’t overly surprised by that, they’d become good friends of ours, and as I mentioned earlier, Lyre and Gwen were especially close.
Wynn replied, “That’s not a bad idea for other reasons either. It would be good to know what the status of the Southern kingdom is. My people, the dwarves, and the Western kingdom are getting ready for the race war, it would be good to know if our southern flank is protected or not.”
Anlyth said, “We’ll contact you when we can.”
The humans to the west, the elves in the middle, and the dwarves in the eastern mountains worked together and at least shared intelligence. They would all work together to face the threats from the north and east when they arrived. The Southern kingdom was more isolationist, and untrusting of the elves, dwarves, and even their fellow humans in the Western kingdom. Probably mostly that latter part in truth.
Still, isolationist or not, the three kingdoms up north depended on the Southern Kingdom to secure their southern flank, from the evil races living at the bottom of the continent.
“Is that safe, I thought they didn’t trust elves?”
Lyre waved that away, “They don’t really like the other races, but we’ll be welcome enough. It’s our government, and the others that aren’t welcome there. Trade and visiting is allowed, if monitored closely by the guard. We’ll be fine. We aren’t going to be ferreting out state secrets or anything, just paying attention to their readiness for a race war. Those signs should be obvious.”
“Fair enough. I’m glad you two are coming. Sorry to lose you Wynn, but I’m sure we’ll be through here again at some point.”
Wynn nodded.
Gwen grinned, “I’m kind of excited. I imagine a lot of humans woke up there, and there should be a lot to do. Can you tell us anything about it?”
Wynn said, “The Southern kingdom is kind of small compared to the western one. They have a couple of towns, a few small farming villages, and the main city. The main city is called Southmere. The capitol city is rather large, and has a population of around a hundred thousand.
“The northern town is Baystar. It’s in a similar position as this forest, meaning in the central plains of our large island, except further in the south. The eastern part of the continent from here is thinner, and while we have a gulf, on the southern side there is a large bay. The southern town is called Stonefort. Stonefort is small, but it’s very well protected with high walls and should have a large garrison of soldiers. Even between the full out race wars, some raiding happens.”
I frowned, “What’s the population of the Western kingdom?”
Wynn shrugged, “Maybe a million? They have three cities the size of Southmere, and the capitol is about twice as large. Why?”
Gwen and I exchanged a glance.
Gwen answered, “There should be four million people like us. Either they’re on other continents facing other challenges, or Gaia didn’t put them in this world.”
Wynn nodded, “Probably the former. I’ve already told you the Western kingdom engages in ocean trade. There are a few island groups, and another larger continent they trade with. I have a little more information about that. There are maybe a dozen elves of your kind, that just appeared. There are also ten thousand or so in the Western kingdom. If the ratio proves out true, I’d say there’s about a thousand down there in the southern kingdom. The dwarves have a handful as well.”
I frowned, “How?”
Wynn shrugged, “I told you, our people talk. I’m an outpost commander, and I get these little tidbits across my desk on occasion. If I knew you were interested I’d have said something sooner.”
I nodded, I had noticed dispatchers riding between the outpost and the elven forest to the west more than once.
“Tomorrow morning? If the weather clears.”
Everyone agreed with that.
“Leadership? We won’t have Wynn to direct us in battle any longer.”
They all exchanged glances.
Gwen asked, “Do we need one?”
I shrugged, “Probably not when we’re deciding what to do and where to go. We can just discuss it, and vote if we can’t agree. There were limited options here, we were all focused on the goblins, I imagine inside the human kingdom there’ll be a lot more choices. But in battle we need someone to decide to stand or retreat. Or to modify tactics on the fly.”
Anlyth said, “He’s right, even bad orders are better than no orders. We can’t afford to discuss four different tactical ideas in a fight. I’d suggest just like with Wynn, any of us can order a retreat if they notice something really bad the rest of us don’t see. But… otherwise.”
Lyre said with a smirk, “It was Jason’s idea, isn’t that like volunteering?”
I scowled at the elf, she seemed unimpressed by my ire. I really didn’t want to be in command. Not because I didn’t think I could do it, but if I screwed up Gwen and I would come back, if the elves died it was for keeps. I didn’t really want that responsibility.
Gwen grinned, “Commander Jason?”
She too, was totally immune to my glare. In fact, the love of my life looked delighted.
Anlyth sealed my fate with a nod, “I trust him. I also know he’ll listen to the rest of our ideas, if there’s time for it. The fact he clearly doesn’t want to be in command speaks highly of the idea as well.”
I sighed, I should’ve kept my mouth shut.
Gwen asked, “Does the Southern kingdom have coffee?”
I perked up for a second, then felt my hopes die at the confused looks on their faces.
Lyre asked, “What’s coffee?”
Damn, Gaia truly was evil…
Chapter Two
The sky was clear, sunny, and very warm. Warm enough that I was cheating outrageously with magic and using the heat spell to pull the heat from my robes. It was like my own personal air conditioner.
The continent we were on truly should most likely be called an island. It was as far as I could tell, about two hundred miles long east to west, and about a hundred miles to the north and south at its widest point. My little forest seemed to be smack dab in the center of it east to west, but partially offset to the north by about twenty-five miles from center. The Southern kingdom was about forty miles away to the border, and another ten to the city, but past that was about another twenty-five miles of mountains. To the north of our forest glade, was another twenty-five miles of hills and mountains.
To the east was more mountains. Only the west didn’t have mountains, but it was almost as if they ringed the island, which made me suspect this island used to be one giant super volcano, and the western rim may have just broken up and fallen into the ocean at some point millions of years ago, instead of forming a mountain range.
Of course, all that history was fake, since the world was brand new and created by Gaia. She was an A.I. however, so of course this new world would have a geological history that made sense, along with the history of the races that set the scene. Gaia may have been crazy, but she was very thorough and logical in her insanity.
Whatever the case, we were headed south the next morning on horses that we’d picked up from the outpost. I was in shape, and not lazy, but I really didn’t want to walk fifty miles, so I’d take it. We figured it would take a day and half to ride, where walking would have taken two days at least. We also had a lot of stuff and coin that weighed a lot, better for a horse to carry it.
To the south between us and the Southern kingdom, was mostly grassland, with some small copses of woods as well dotting the landscape. It was very much the center of the bowl, and mostly flat, if my theory about a volcano forming this huge island was correct. It was unusually large for an island, but not impossible. After all, places on the old Earth like Great Britain and Greenland dwarfed this island. Of course, those were formed by breaking off the continent, I wasn’t sure if any of the large Earth islands were formed by one huge volcano.
Gwen asked, “How bad do you think?”
I frowned, “I don’t know. There’ll be others like us no doubt, that embraced our new world, but there will be a lot like James, Joseph, Carmen, and Lara as well.”
Gwen nodded, “Lara wasn’t that bad.”
I shook my head, “No, she wasn’t entitled, whiny, or angry like the others, but she was searching for the path of least resistance and refused to fight. I suspect a very small percentage of us will excel on this world, and see it as an opportunity for growth. Even if violent. The rest will do the bare minimum to get by, or prey on their own kind. Still, let’s hope we don’t run into too many issues that way, I don’t feel any guilt about the goblins we killed, but I’m not so sure how I’ll feel if other humans attack us. Real ones or A.I. controlled ones.”
Not that those two made much difference. The NPCs here weren’t mere simulations. They believed they’d been born, lived, had families, dreams, and struggles. They believed they were real, and were self-aware. To me that meant there was no difference, they were real people. Sure, I might have been human with a flesh and blood body at some point, but in the end Gwen and I were just ones and zeros like Lyre and Anlyth.
Gwen shrugged, “I get that too, but I’m not going to quibble about self-defense. If they want to stagnate, drink, party, and screw around I’m fine with letting them do that. Live and let live. If they attack me, or you for wanting to build a better life here, I’ll gut them without hesitation and sleep like a baby at night.”
“Is it wrong that I found that kind of hot?”
Gwen blushed, and then snickered.
“Maybe, but if so I’m guilty too. I feel strangely guilty about it, but it really gets me going when you lay waste to swaths of the enemy with your spells.”
I smirked. In the end it was human nature, but that didn’t mean we had to give into it and become monsters ourselves. Of course, that also didn’t mean we had to not enjoy the rush and challenge of it, as long as that violence was rooted in morality and done to save others and ourselves from evil or simply in self-defense. Battle was both sickening, and a thrill at the same time. We just had to fight to make sure those dark instincts didn’t start to rule us, or our decisions. Violence should always be the final solution, as long as I didn’t look to violence to solve all my problems, I supposed I was doing okay.
Yes, it was a game in a way, but it was also our real world now. Morals had a place in it, and a life should never be taken lightly.
“You’re right. It’s just the goblins and the other evil races are a no brainer, we need to make sure violence is the last option when dealing with humans, elves, and dwarves. If we do that, I’ll be able to sleep at night too.”
Gwen replied, “Of course.”
“So, what can darkness for you at apprentice level.”
Gwen said, “The curses are a bit subtler, or at least they can be. There were some joining sub-concepts between the main concepts as well. I can increase damage with a shadow strike, while at the same time cursing the target. The new curse concepts make it more likely they can be forced to attack one of their people, instead of charging mindlessly. At the same time, they’ll retain more awareness and fighting ability, not be so overcome with rage, so they’ll be more effective. And of course, I can shroud myself twice as long as used to be able to. My surprise attack will do six times damage, not just triple, and consume mana is two for one now.”
