Hack, Slash & Burn 2: A LitRPG Fantasy, page 26
Information appeared beside the town, detailing its inhabitants.
Berring
Affiliation: Light
Current population
Sentient Touched beings: 6
Sentient Non-Touched beings: 11
Calder frowned. The details weren’t exactly extensive, though he couldn’t complain. He was glad it didn’t detail what defences they had in place or the levels of those within the town. He supposed the population was based on those currently within the town, the eleven non-Touched being those under the age of eighteen.
Peter would be in Kashan. Luceen would either be in the Great Marketplace, procuring more stone for the extended wall being built in the capital, or perhaps in Kashan, delivering said stone. All of the other Touched—except for a single squad, plus Yesna and Calder—should be training in the Dark World and defending their new outpost.
They could never pause training, after all.
With a thought, Calder made the map zoom back out until he got a full view of the Lorilan Kingdom once more. He looked at the other towns nearby like Casdale and Eamesmore. Unsurprisingly, they were both completely deserted. That proved to be the same for every single other town within Lorilan except for Berring.
The city of Samlin, however, hadn’t been abandoned. Samlin was the second largest city in the Lorilan Kingdom. It used to be a two-day journey on foot or by caravan. Nowadays, Calder would be able to make it there in mere moments.
He focused on the town and more information appeared.
Samlin
Affiliation: Light
Current population
Sentient Touched beings: 2
Sentient Non-Touched beings: 303,532
Calder blinked. There were only two Touched in the entire city? He wondered who those people might be. One of them, at least, must be a Soldier of Light, as he was sure that they must be remaining in the different cities around the world awaiting the exodus. He wasn’t too surprised to see there were three hundred thousand people residing within the city.
He moved his attention onto Kashan.
Kashan
Affiliation: Light
Current population
Sentient Touched beings: 45
Sentient Non-Touched beings: 1,201,762
He tilted his head to the side. They had more Touched than Berring, but nowhere near as many as he imagined. How many Touched did the emperor manage to withdraw from Lorilan before he gave control of Dranador to the enemy?
Some of the Touched in Kashan would be Soldiers of Light, like Ballam. The others would be citizens of Halanor that had been turned into Touched when the Soldiers of Light came into this world. While one of those would be Peter, of course.
Calder frowned. He would be losing all those Touched once the exodus happened. Everyone but Peter.
He zoomed out of Kashan, the sprawling city stretching out for miles from its epicentre, the wall around it clearly visible even as the city shrunk.
The next place he wished to see was Dranador. When he located the city he saw… mostly darkness, except for a line that ran through one of the gates and straight to the middle. He narrowed his eyes, recognising that line and the roads it revealed—it was the way he had travelled with Peter.
He looked at the information beside the city.
Dranador
Affiliation: Dark
Current population obscured
Calder sighed. He supposed it would be too good to be true to be able to see just how many enemies they would have to deal with. He glanced at Graham. “Will our town be obscured to them?”
Graham put a hand to his chin and made a “hmm” sound. “Assuming they have access to Advanced Proximity Scanners, which I dearly hope they don’t… yes, I believe so. I doubt the System would let the Dark spy on the Light more freely than the Light to the Dark.”
Calder nodded. This tool felt… far more powerful than he could have imagined. Now, he would be able to portal to basically anywhere in the world as long as it wasn’t blocked by some protection spell. And even if it was blocked, his World Step spell should help him circumvent that.
It was exactly what they needed to help bring the world together.
Nexuses, unfortunately, weren’t shown on the map.
He inspected the map further and, to his dismay, found that there were more cities in the world that had turned to Darkness than Light.
The world of Halanor was outnumbered five to one.
Chapter 30
Calder stood staring at the map for at least two hours before finally closing it with a loud sigh. “Things are worse than I thought.”
Graham had been there the whole time, staring at the map with him. The ghost didn’t say a word. He simply nodded, a grave look on his face.
There were a dozen cities currently under the protection of the Light. When he had been speaking to Ballam back in Kashan and heard of how many cities remained in the Light… Calder hadn’t thought too hard on it. Honestly, he hadn’t known how many cities there were in the world. He may have been in the army, but he had been a lowly foot soldier, a man who had originated in a small town. And while in the army, he had only ever fought against the neighbouring empire.
The population that he had calculated of Halanor—roughly sixteen million—must have been wrong, as well. It must have originally been higher than that. When he looked at the population for the entire world, in those places that weren’t obscured by the Dark, he saw six million people, three million of which would be taken from this world.
But there were five times as many cities that had either been completely destroyed or taken by the darkness.
No other city in the world that Calder could see held as many people as Kashan did, but he had to imagine that millions of people must be dead or under the rule of Darkness.
While finding out the number of refugees he wished to bring to Kashan would end up being less than two million, rather than the almost seven million he thought would come was in some way a relief, it was also a devastating thing to learn.
Though the numbers were so large it was hard for Calder to attach emotion to them. These were people he didn’t know. People he had never met, would never meet. There was nothing he could have done for them, and most definitely nothing he could do for them now.
All he could do was try to protect the living.
This knowledge didn’t change their plans for Kashan. They still needed to extend its walls and further develop its defences. When he had been working on the defences of Berring, he had come across weapons that they hadn’t been able to afford. Defensive weapons such as ballistae, that could be mounted to the top of their battlements and shoot massive missiles with great destructive force against the enemy army.
But those weapons had been very, very expensive.
What they lacked right now wasn’t people. They had many volunteers back in Kashan who wished to defend the city—though far less than he had expected, with only a quarter of the current population chipping in, that was still over a quarter of a million people.
No, they didn’t lack people. They lacked resources.
He bit his lip. In theory, he could start travelling to these other cities now. He could speak with their leaders, get people to Kashan ahead of time. But that would simply overburden the city before it was ready. Besides, he knew that the half of the population that ended up left behind after the exodus would be far more willing to travel to Kashan after they realised simply escaping this world wasn’t an option for them.
Still, it would probably we wise to send someone to speak with each of the city leaders to pave their way when the time came. Though it didn’t have to be him. He communicated to all the different squads through the Spirit Construct. As per his plan, they tried to always have a portal open to the outpost in the Dark World that they held. Now that Graham was back, it meant that he could speak to every one of his squads instantaneously.
And they didn’t only have a portal open to the Dark World, they had one open to Asteria, the world where Baldor and the Great Marketplace were held. It was more than worth using a few Portal Stones to keep them open. And for those at the outpost, it actually helped them to attract Darktouched to kill—Graham had referred to what they were doing there as “farming.” Calder found that do be a reasonable, if odd, term.
He alerted them all of what he had discovered, letting Graham give them the finer details. Though the Spirit Construct’s memory of when he was alive was fractured and compromised, his memory afterward was complete and absolute. He could retain every single detail that he had seen. And, as he could appear in multiple places at once, he was able to talk to everyone at the same time.
Calder was glad that Graham was back, for many reasons. For one, he had simply missed the ghost, even if they didn’t always get along. But he was also an incredible resource, one he didn’t want them to be without again.
Worth dying for, it seems.
He could barely imagine what it would be like when they got more Touched into their… army? Society? Group? He shook his head as he thought about it. Thousands, no, millions of people connected by Spirit Constructs, all of them able to communicate instantaneously with one another, all of them with a ghost companion that in theory could hold vast knowledge…
They would be able to advance people’s training at a remarkable pace.
Of course, that wouldn’t be a reality if this world fell to the Dark. He had perhaps been overconfident following their victory against the army that had marched on Berring. That army may have been large, but it was nowhere near the extent of what the enemy was capable of. Even if he were able to create many new Touched, could they really be ready to fight? They would be untrained and unlevelled. It would take time to get them up to speed.
Not everyone was a former soldier like Calder. And, well, Calder had been a little more than just a soldier—he had been an incredible swordsman, something that had made acclimatising to his new reality easier.
After the exodus, the orcs are going to throw everything they have at us to claim this world for the Dark. And it wouldn’t be just the orcs, either. Who knew how many humans hard been turned to the Dark…
He heard back from someone in one of his squads that was volunteering to travel to the other cities and speak with their leaders. Calder didn’t want to send too many people at once, as he needed them all training—and gathering wealth—so he was only sending one person. He figured they would have ample time to travel to each of the other eleven cities.
It was Karla, one of the healers. She had been the first to spot the enemy army when it was close to Berring, ringing the bell to alarm everyone in the town. He remembered sending her to be a keeper of the portals, just because of how frantic she had looked. She also used to run the general store in town—before the orcs destroyed it in their initial invasion of Berring, killing her husband in the process.
She was quite good at talking to people, not to mention negotiation. And the fact that she could heal the injured and the sick should give her some goodwill with those she dealt with.
Calder had to figure she would make a fine diplomat and sent her on her way. Graham was able to relay the information she needed in order to create portals to each of the cities, which she could route through the outpost in the Dark World. He had taken that orc settlement on a whim, but was rather glad he had.
That world was the perfect training ground. Especially as they would soon be inundated with more Touched than they knew what to do with, assuming they were able to gather enough soulstones to create Weapon Stones in the first place. Though he knew that sooner or later, the orcs would try and take it back, he wasn’t too worried. It had only taken him and Peter to take out a whole battalion of what they had sent to reclaim the Nexus.
The only problem was if they sent them at the wrong time—he didn’t want to be fighting wars on multiple fronts. If it comes to that, it’s easy enough to abandon and reclaim later.
Peter reported that everything in Kashan was going as smoothly as it could.
Luceen let him know that she was quickly running out of resources. Apparently, she had been taking Jonah with her to the Great Marketplace, as he had been keen on returning there ever since he had travelled to the place with Calder.
According to Luceen, the young farmer’s son had a way with talking to merchants. Particularly female merchants, of which there were many within the city, and Luceen was confident in letting him take over operations for now.
Yesna had already woken from her short rest. They didn’t need much sleep at their levels.
Calder smiled, glad Peter, Luceen and Yesna were all free. It had been far too long since he had fought with his entire party. Though he had enjoyed fighting by himself against those Ice Yetis, and it had gained him quite a lot of levels, he knew that right now that wasn’t an option.
They needed to hoard as much wealth as they could over the next two days. Though two days didn’t sound like a lot of time—especially with all they had to prepare for—he wasn’t going to let them take it easy, not now he knew what they would gain when they each reached level 60.
The others might not be able to benefit from the Avatar of Light bonus that Calder gained, but they would still gain other things. Like the 50 attribute points and three new skills. He was sure that they would each be eager to acquire new skills to add to their arsenal.
Luceen, especially, seemed eager to get to training. Peter sounded keen, too. Though Yesna, perhaps following their last adventure of taking the orc settlement with just the two of them, had a little trepidation.
It didn’t take them long to meet in the former orc settlement, though that wasn’t where they set off from. Calder created a portal straight back to Halanor, then another one back to the Dark World, figuring a direct portal would be much faster than walking or running with the others to their destination.
The portal he created back sent them straight into the mountains where he had faced the Ice Yetis. He had a feeling that as they climbed that mountain, the enemies would only get stronger, and as he had been able to take out so many of them on his own, he knew as a group they should be able to handle whatever they came across.
Especially if Calder managed to keep all of the enemy aggression on him.
“Gods, it’s cold up here.” Peter shivered, standing atop a few feet of snow, gazing up at the white-capped peaks high above through the spare canopy of branches. “So, this is where you ran off to a few days ago, to gain all those levels? What exactly is up here?”
Luceen’s staff glowed. She whispered a word and a Fireball burst into being, hovering in front of her, providing plenty of warmth.
Yesna raised an eyebrow at the two of them, making no move to warm herself. As Touched, they should be able to handle the change in temperature easily enough. “Yes, what will we be fighting up here?”
Calder grinned, glancing down at his Proximity Scanner. The nearest enemy wasn’t far, and it was alone. “Why don’t I show you.” He nodded in the direction he wanted them to head and burst into a run.
The others sighed, but he could hear them following quickly behind. He had to slow down to ensure they could actually keep up with him.
In moments, they encountered their first Ice Yeti of the day.
Chapter 31
They approached quietly through the trees. Calder wanted to get a look at the beast before they went after it. Who knew if they might stumble upon something stronger than what he had encountered in the past. He might be able to escape fairly easily with Dream Step, but that didn’t mean the others could.
He scanned the Darktouched beast from within the trees, though just from seeing it he knew it would be another alpha.
Ice Yeti Alpha
Level 125
Classification: Beast Elemental
Attributes
Strength: 230
Agility: 130
Magic: 70
Stamina: 230
Perception: 30
The scan didn’t turn up anything different to usual, despite having upgraded to an Advanced Proximity Scanner. Though he was disappointed, he was glad to find another alpha.
And, come to think of it, as he looked down as his Proximity Scanner, he noticed it covered more area than it had before. The mini-map looked to be twice as large as before. Instead of filling a three-mile radius, it must have filled a five- or six-mile radius now, showing him more enemies far farther up the mountain.
Calder grinned. The Alpha was the same level as the one he had faced before, which meant it was likely to react the same way, as well. As soon as they started attacking it, it would call upon its friends. Looking down at the Proximity Scanner, Calder found there were even more Ice Yetis in the area than last time.
Thinking about the last time he faced an Ice Yeti Alpha, he had already cleared the surrounding area of several lower-level Ice Yetis. As with the orcs, more Ice Yetis had found their way here. I wonder where they come from. He pushed the thought away. All that mattered was that they were here.
Wondering about the new abilities of his scanner, he took the opportunity to look at his own attributes, which would now include his new spells.
Calder – Avatar of Light
Level 61
Classification: Spellsword/Berserker
Attributes – Simplified (Modified Values)
Strength: 141
Agility: 174
Magic: 176
Stamina: 162
Perception: 61
You have 0 attribute points to apply.
Spells
Heal Other: Active; Constant Mana Drain = High
Illumination: Active; Constant Mana Drain = Low
Fireball: Active; Instant Mana Drain = Medium
Freeze: Active; Constant Mana Drain = Medium
Lightning Bolt: Active; Instant Mana Drain = Medium
Mana Blade: Active; Instant Mana Drain = Medium; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Medium
Burning Devastation: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Very High; Instant Mana Drain = High
Tough Skin: Passive; Initial Adrenaline Drain = Medium
Strong Stance: Passive; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
