AN:
Ok, this one took a little longer than expected. Gamer fics are incredibly tedious to make, especially when I have to consider the hundreds of potential upgrades, units, and technologies to make and include in this.
I've read the reviews and I want to thank all the people who made to attempt of getting involved in suggesting possible structures technology, upgrades and pontential units. There may come a time where I may include magic units, but I try to at least keep it reasonable. like for example, I research mithril and ebony metals to add to my armor and weapon construction and research as an alternative path to science research but can also research at the same time provided you've got the money, time and resources.
Also, I am very annoyed by this one review who's decided to waste my time and patience in spamming a review totally not related to my story in any way but preaching to his...*Ahem!" "religion". I don't know if he was trolling, which I highly suspect that he is, or he's just that desperate to let everyone know that God is still and always watching us... provided that he still remembers us as he is still consumed by his celestial dementia. I'm not the only victim of his constant spamming, he's done to other people's reviews and spam posted in several areas of certain fictions and crossovers. That just really grinds my gears...:(
To those who wanted combat in this chapter, there will be combat...but there will be more in the next chapter.
First Blood
After a decent night's sleep, I woke up feeling quite refreshed…well, not really. In fact the bastard game system did not even bother giving me any bonuses or negate the effects of me waking up in the mornings such as lethargy and grogginess.
Well, guess I'm going to have to invent coffee in this world pretty soon then, if I could. Thinking about it, my mouth and throat feels really dry and sore like someone shoved lumps of burning hot coal down in there and poured lighter fluid down the hatch and set it alight just to add salt upon the wounds.
*Knock! Knock! Knock!*
Hm? There's somebody who's eager at my bedroom door that wants me up as it seems, so I slowly rose up from my bed and went to answer it. As soon as I unlocked the door and opened it to see that it was the young maid girl who appeared to be in decent spirits at least and her face seemed brighter and fuller and… Hold on?
I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times to adjust my eyes, clearly befuddled by what I was seeing right now.
"Good morning Master!" she bowed her head and gave me her best, brightest and cheerful smile she could muster.
"What the…?" I gawked at her in shock as the amount that has changed about her was staggering! She was no longer dreadfully thin and her skin had brightened up instead of looking like a deathly pale person on the verge of death. She also seemed to have more meat on her bones and filled out her rag dress decently enough at least. Her looks, while not much to look at or turn a few heads around still, she at least had some nicer features to compliment about, plus she had the beginnings to look cute and adorable if given enough time and patience. Like her eyes how they seemed to shine like precious jewels when she was happy. Her body, while filling out a bit more than yesterday, she still hasn't got enough meat, muscle or fat in her to develop breasts, hips, waist, legs, and butt…at least, not yet…'what the hell am I thinking of here?' I mentally slapped myself as my hormones had a mind of it's own.
Her reaction faltered seeing my expression and her face morphed into slight fear, meekness, and anxiety, thus she began franticly apologising. "Iyah! I-I-I'm so sorry, Master! I apologise for disturbing you and disgracing you with my presence, I-I-it's just that…" she began to cry as tears started to well up in her eyes and wouldn't stop bowing.
Despite the Gamer's mind, I couldn't bring myself to resist the looks of an innocent young girl who had the looks of a sad puppy "Woah, hey there…calm down, I'm not mad at you." I moved to place my hands on her shoulders to stop her from bowing and to soothe her nerves, which had some minor success as it only made her flinch at the close contact.
"Sorry." I murmured out as I removed my hands from her shoulders, realising she was uncomfortable about this.
"No, that's okay… it's just that…no, never mind." She shook her head with a slight blush, avoiding the subject. My face showed nothing despite the bandages at her cute reaction, but mentally I was cursing up a storm 'Gaaaagh! Godamnit! This situation looks like it came straight out of a shitty isekai manga or novel or some shit like that!' I choked in restrained blustering fury as I was barely holding in my embarrassment.
I only shrugged calmly as I didn't want to pry any further into her personal reasons to why she was uncomfortable. However, I was very curious about something. "You look…nice this morning." Smooth moves, Zachary, real smooth… What? I've never held a charming conversation with a girl, alright. This is not my area that I have major experience in.
You have learnt a new skill
Charm – level 1
Charm or flatter your targets into letting down their guard around you, confuse them, gaining rep, Acquiring information and getting them to like you. This can also work in tandem with Flirt with the opposite gender that can increase your chances of acquiring love interests or more if it is high enough.
'You've got to be kidding me?' my eye twitched as to what it insinuated.
The girl however just had a brighter shade of light dust of pink brightening up on her cheeks more as she avoided my gaze. 'huh, that actually worked? Although, I bet she hasn't been paid many compliments in her life as a commoner. No wonder it was considered too easy' I mused to myself despite how blunt that thought was.
"Th-Thank you, master… it's all thanks to you… well, I think it had something to do with the house, the food, and the bathroom. I ate so much more than I usually do that my bones are not visible from my skin anymore, I've never been and felt so much cleaner and healthy before that my skin looks brighter and smoother, even my scars have disappeared." She explained to me, fervently.
I blinked and then I gained a tic mark. 'What the hell!? As much as I'm happy for her, why is it only her and the rest of my summons that gained the buffs and effects from the so-called magical bathroom, soap, and food while I'm still suffering from the side effects of being burnt alive in my own home… I call bullshit!' I raged mentally.
The maid girl then suddenly remembered why she was here. "Ah! I remembered what I was going to tell you now!"
"And that is?" I tilted my head.
"We finished with the buildings you wished for to be built and renovated last night, Master." She smiled brightly. "However, the farm does not…have any crops or cattle." She said a bit disheartened.
That made me sigh and click my tongue 'Of course not, It appears that weapons, vehicles, munitions, supplies, and personnel are the only permitted things that I can summon personally. Crops, livestock and anything edible and drinkable I can't summon individually by myself and thus they are only exclusively summoned at the designated building only. Though, I bet that it will only start off with the basic necessities, I'll have to find a trader or something for some more and better crops and other things that are important like spices and coffee beans... I doubt that I'll be able to find rice though' I sighed as I mentally brought up the map and saw that the farm was indeed finished, but the lands/ fields and the buildings were pretty much empty.
The fishing cabin was apparently under use right now and they were catching a quite a fair bit of fish early in the morning, not like I even asked them to, but I think that they probably felt safe under the militia guarding this village and they wanted to repay me for my generosity, so I didn't mind the initiative that they took. And the Hunter's Cabin had finished also and was stationed near the forest. The territory had increased around the cabins by a radius of 50 metres covering parts of the forest and the river and likewise was also under use right now.
I then noticed a small icon by the map that had an exclamation mark. I hovered my gaze over it and mentally casted an observe on it and the icon flickered open a textbox that read out
Notifications
'Oh, I see…so this is a notifications box that records every recent event that happened from last night.' I nodded, fully understanding at where this was going as I pressed the icon.
Building claimed and fully repaired!
Construction Complete!
Construction Complete!
New units /training options now available
Side ops list updated!
Build a Tier 1 base of at least five structures: 3/5 completed
Rewards: ?
Rewards? First time I heard about them?… I think this game is probably still bugged or still in Alpha or something?
So three of the five structures have been completed, only two more to go. The first three structures focuses on food and agriculture, whilst the last two structures will focus on natural resources and industrialisation. My next few objectives were to build a quarry and a mine to at least acquire stone and iron, in order to build better stuff as the second tier is where things get really interesting for me to start off the early, mid and possibly the late stages of medieval civilisation. A sawmill can be included in on this to build more complicated structures and furniture, although it is not really a critical building I need , but it is on to be considered as I do need a lot of wood and timber.
I then noticed some strange things that I noticed that happened last night, a little while after the buildings were completed and a little while after I summoned the Militia to be exact, according to the notifications log.
'Why am I level 5?' Was what I was wondering about as I read the notifications log, seeing all of the random texts. All of them were saying something about gaining EXP points and earning GMP cash, I had found out that I had a little more than 2,115 GMP in my pocket right now since last night.
'How the hell did I get all of this…unless?' I had a feeling I knew that I knew the answer, but was still unsure about it. I turned towards the maid to ask her.
"Hey, err…Hmm~?" I tried asking her politely and I felt a little bit awkward as I did not even bother asking for her name earlier and I seemed to have forgotten it after I read her bio.
"Alice, my name is Alice of Lier." She introduced herself with a shy smile. "I'm… was from Tristian, until I came here."
I nodded as I made a note to remember her name and to ask her about her former home "Alice …did…anything happen last night?"
Alice noticeably shifted quite uncomfortably at that, but she tried to play it off by tilted her head and placed a finger on her lips, pretending to be in deep thought…at least, trying to be "Well, the buildings are all finished and we saw the new militia and village guardsmen. I was even surprised to see that there were women among them and that there were more women than there were men that rarely happens didn't you know?" she told me with a curious gaze and I only shrugged but nodded, knowing at what she was getting at. It was understandable where she was coming from as what history proves, women had little to no place in the military or other places where men are dominant in certain roles in several societal eras hundreds even thousands of years ago and in other places too. Only a few places in history are exempted from that line of thought, however rare it may be.
"Right…but did anything happen during the night was what I meant, anything strange?"
When I asked her that, her face made a notable twitch and her gaze faltered a bit. "I'... I'm sorry, Master, but… The Loo-ten-ant said she wanted to talk to you about that, she wanted to tell you in person and forbade me from informing you first… I-I-I'll be getting back to work now…I'll be in the Kitchen with Mother… we may not look it but we are pretty good cooks, it just… takes a bit of time to learn everything again…Ok, I'll…see you at breakfast." She mumbled and rushed on downstairs into the Kitchen.
I raised a suspicious brow at her behaviour, she was terrible at hiding her emotions and worse at lying as it was that obvious that something did happen last night and everybody knew it but me.
After getting changed and freshening up and maintaining the bandages as well as I could, I headed downstairs towards the kitchen where I could smell the lovely aroma of cooked fish and some other things that I didn't recognise at first. As I approached the kitchen where the dining table was at, I could see that there were several more dishes included at the table such as a bowel of edible berries and nuts, some edible plants, cooked mushrooms, some cooked birds and a couple of rabbits was what my Observe skill had told me as it levelled up to Observe - Level 3
While I was inspecting the food on the table, looking incredibly surprised and impressed by how well prepared it was… well… as well as it could be as it still looked pretty plain as there was an obvious lack of spices and herbs as well as butter, flour and eggs and the only thing we have to make the taste as little bit better was a small box full of salt and sugar. The mother of Alice turned around from the sink and in her hands was a pot of diced fish mixed with mushrooms and other things to make a soup.
"Ah, Master! G-Good morning, I didn't hear you come in." she jumped up in surprise, as if I could hear her apprehension from where I stood.
When I looked over towards Alice's Mother, I discreetly casted observe just to lean the name and what her stats were.
Name – Lena of Lier
Level 6
HP – (68/68HP)
MP – (0/0MP)
(Common Unit)
Age – 33
Loyalty – 100% [Absolute] (Big Boss perk)
Morale – 88% (High Spirts)
Mood – Anxious, Safe, happy, dutiful
Unit individual Stats:
Strength - E
Perception: - D
Endurance - E
Charm – D
Intelligence – D
Agility – E
Luck - D
Secondary stats
Magic prowess- F
Unit specialty rank:
Combat - E
R&D (Research and Development) - E
Base Development - D
Support - D
Intel - E
Medical - D
Special Skills:
Cooking, Housekeeping, Sewing, Child rearing, Administration (Potential)
So her name is Lena… hmm, all this information is a bit much for one unit. Is everybody going to be like that?
"Lena, is it?" I asked her
"Eh!…Ah, Errm…Yes!" she panicked as I called out her name.
"Calm down, it's nothing serious. I just want to know, did anything happen last night?"
"…Well… The leader of the militia has told me to let you know that she is waiting for you by the forest where the hunting cabin's been completed." She said rather meekly for a 33 year old mother.
"Is there a reason why you're being so secretive?" I said semi-seriously
She averted her gaze, but bravely she refused to answer "She says that she will inform you herself."
I sigh at her and to an extent Misaki's insistence that I walk all the way over to where my lieutenant is believed to be at to receive a proper and informative answer, so I relented and nodded as I accepted a cup of water that was brought in by Alice as well as picking up a fresh and wild fruit off of the table that I just noticed.
"Where did you find this?" I referred to the wild apple in my hand?
"We found it by luck… this place used to have an Orchard here once, just by the edge of the forest. It's Lucky for us, they're fresh." Lena answered with a smile.
"Hmm~" I nodded and hummed at the same time as I loosened the bandages around my mouth to take a bite out of the apple. "Mmm~!" I nodded at the taste. "I don't know why, but this is the best apple I've tasted so far… must be the air around here." I mused to myself as I took another bite out of the apple and turned to leave the house with my cup of water in the other hand.
As I walked out the front floor, I felt the early morning sunray's warming me up despite the cold northern winds biting through my bandages. My HUD, which I subconsciously brought up, had told me that it was 9:07AM. Not the time I usually wake up, At times it's much later than that, sometimes I wake up in the early afternoons if I was that exhausted.
It was the time I wanted to wake up as I could get some shit done if I started bright and early like some farmers do, but they get up way earlier than this.
I looked towards the outskirts of the village to the south west to see that the farm had indeed been completed where all the farmland and the farmyard looked neat and tidy without all of the overgrowth of weeds and plants and all the rotten wood making it unusable.
I mentally selected the farm and the whole layout of the farm appeared in front of me. So far, there were only three Felds available for use, some of the fields will be selected for the crops while the other fields will hold the cattle or other animals that I would require. There was also a barn that had been raised to house my animals and farm equipment.
The farm animals have their own uses besides meat, such as the cows and the chickens that could provide me with Milk and eggs, while the sheep can provide me with natural wool grown from their hides.
The crops that I could summon via the farm were pretty basic at first. I first started off with the basic food crops that were Wheat and potatoes to start off with. Then I had another crop that I could use that was called cotton. Cotton is a crop used to produce cotton materials for clothes. Since the people that I summoned from this world only have their poor clothes that were rags at this point and they pretty much had nothing else to change into. The same goes for the wool as they needed warm clothes for the colder weather.
I didn't need any new clothes as I could just summon some new ones in, and I could provide my summons with new clothes, but it gets tiresome if I constantly overuse it.
So after I inspected the farm, I summoned the necessary amount of crops needed that came in sacks of seeds as well as the animals that were 1 rooster and 4 chickens, 1 ram and 4 sheep, 1 bull and 4 cows that were pretty much summoned from abandoned fields or they escaped from captivity so they either came in dirt cheap or free of charge. The rate at which crops and animals that reaches maturity is vastly increased by my ability.
The Crops will reach maturity in around 20 days for wheat, 25 days for cotton and 31 days for potatoes, so I will be able to harvest each and every one of them just under a month. Oddly enough, the gestation period is reduced to around 71 days for cows, 36 days for sheep and 15 days for chickens. Even weirder, the ability that the farm gives off to them passively, also affects the same time needed to reach sexual maturity for each of the animals. So I will be able to harvest crops every month, and the number of animals especially the chickens will be doubled or tripled every month as well so I didn't have to waste any more money in buying or summoning them until I had to keep the birth rate down if the game system has a command for that I wonder?
Bearing in mind, these were wild cattle that escaped captivity, stolen or were abandoned so their quality will undoubtedly be questionable on purchase. Buying a cow was not cheap for instance as the price for 1 healthy dairy cow was at 2,500 GMP. A bull used for breeding more cows will cost me… 3000GMP. But since these cows were taken from the wild or recovered from their previous captivity, and are not on any markets or owned by farming establishments, their prices dropped massively to 200-500GMP or were even lower than that or perhaps free.
All of them were pretty cheap, but like the people I summoned, they were not healthy and were all pretty malnourished. Not a problem, since the farm will be taking care of them in that regard and providing them with fresh water and food, they will recover in no time due to the building's passive healing abilities and their quality will increase overtime and perhaps they may get in the mood to bree-…Erm…Populate the farm once they are healthy again?
As soon as I summoned in the animals, I was right on the moneny that they were in such a poor state of condition. The cows and the bull were incredibly malnourished and the bull had very little muscle on him. The sheep and the ram were underweight and sick judging by their woollen coats having bald patches and covered in dirt and fungus that made it look green and yellow and very lumpy. The chickens were in a similar state as they looked underweight and their feathers were in tatters leaving several bald patches, but they had some sort of pox developing around their faces and something oozing out of their beaks. And all of the animals had the shakes.
"Oh, you poor things." now I felt bad for them. There was simply no way I could put them to use as who knows what sort of infections and diseases they are suffering from. They needed to be well looked after before I could get something in return from them. Perhaps I could get a vet, maybe? But still, their infections could lessen or disappear with a few good days rest along with some food and water, and then they should be pretty much fine or a bit healthier once all that is done.
After I sent them to the barns to rest whilst I had people to give them food which was basic grass, seeds, and water, I mused to myself at the benefits of having a functional farm 'Hmm…So in just under a month, I should be able to have enough food and materials to support about a hundred people or more. I think 18 more peoples should do it for now as I have enough food right now for them. I will need more people to support the farm and to construct more buildings as I will need a Sawmill to cut and shape the wood, masonry as well as a quarry for the stone and a mine and a smithy for the metals. I will also need to start building those homes for the residents as I can't support them all in my home for much longer than I need to other than temporary housing and I need to start thinking about my soldiers more, they may be constructed, but they're still human.' I mused to myself.
As I was musing to myself, I subconsciously told myself that I should head on over to the hunter's cabin and inspect it. Also to see what the whole silent treatment was all about.
On the way there, I caught something at the outskirts of the salvaged houses beside one of the abandoned houses that looked quite off as I spotted an arrow with a blotch of fresh blood staning the wood work, a little chunk of flesh hanging off it as well as bits of grey dried hair and bone hanging off it around the area where the arrow landed into rotten wood post that was barely holding up a rotten and deteriorating fence.
Your Observe skill has levelled up by 1
[Observe] level 4
"Whose blood is this?" I said to myself as inspected the flesh and blood.
Monster blood
Species - [Unknown]
This blood is different from human blood as it looks like black gunk, or a really dark shade of red that looks almost as if it was dyed black. The blood and flesh smells rotten and rancid…yet you feel as if it belonged to something…evil.
I don't know what that description meant or what it implied, but something was definitely here and it's threatening my village.
I needed answers as I marched all the way to the Hunter's cabin.
As I arrived I saw a decently sized log cabin with a shed by the side that stores up excess logs and wooden materials such as sticks that are not currently being used waiting to be transported to a sawmill when I get round to it. It also came equipped with two carts that either a horse or a man could pull that is used for transportation to and from the Hunter's Cabin towards any location where a building is being constructed or perhaps to a storage room in the basement or a warehouse.
Inside the cabin, it was filled with equipment and tools used to cut down trees. The sawmill will have the necessary equipment used to cut and trim the logs into timber used for construction and also be used for furniture.
Whilst I was visibly pleased by the results as my workers had taken the initiative to try out and test the new woodcutter's equipment and tools and they already filled the storage sheds with logs as well as the carts.
But the thing that got my attention was a bit further on to my right as I smelt something rotten and burning that was coming from a clearing in the forest that was close by, just behind some bushes. I quickly walked over to the bushes and pushed them out the way as I stepped through, and what greeted me was a sight of an aftermath of what appeared to have been a battle…or a slaughter.
The bodies were already gone, but the blood, arrows, crossbow bolts, weapons, and bits of flesh were all of what's left behind as the only evidence pointing towards a bloody fight that occurred here. The smoke was coming from a fair distance away coming from a recently dug up pit where there was once a fire raging inside.
I stood there with my eyes wide open… if didn't had my Gamer's mind passive on, I would've been in stone cold shock instead of feeling a bit surprised by the carnage "What the fuck?...Misaki!" I yelled out for my aide was not currently present at where she should be.
Waiting for a few moments for an answer or if she were to turn up, I heard something shift and muffled up noises. I turned my head to the right and spotted a tree with some rope wrapped around it tightly. There, as I walked around it… was a familiar, yet ugly little green creature completely bound and gagged by the tree.
"A Goblin?" I frowned a bit as I saw what appeared to be a stereotypical form of goblin that you would normally see from anime and manga formats such as Goblin Slayer being the closest representation of its looks. It almost looked as if it was about the size of a child between 6-11 years old, Its skin colour was dark green, it had a crooked face and jagged yet rotting teeth that had a few chips in it, it was incredibly ugly and it smelt really bad.
It wore what appeared to be a loin cloth that covered his private parts, and a crudely made leather cloak with a patched up hood that had seen better days, that apparently was yesterday.
While the goblin was already ugly, it looked to have been badly beaten and tortured into a bloody pulp.
The goblin opened its eyes and turned towards me before it started panicking and thrashing around in his bonds. It seemed like it wanted to say something to me.
I then reached behind its head and undid the cloth gag around it's mouth and removed it.
The Goblin took a breath of air in and it started to blubber incomprehensible words at me.
"Y-Y-Y-Ya gatta He-He_Helth …Helth be!"
I think It was trying to say help me, but his bruised lip was giving him a nasty lisp and disfigured speech… but I was curious about something first.
"What happened here? Who did this to you?"
"I…I…were…part obv… scoutin…grew-puh…we were…own-we cur-we-us" he tried to pronounce with shaky breaths and a butchered speech. "We…ambooshed…by…yer…peepul…we…did…nutin…wong…" the goblin managed to cough out.
So apparently this goblin was part of a scouting party, and when they arrived they were ambushed…by my militia who I told to defend and patrol the area…and they somehow translated it from "Defend and patrol the area" into "Kill anything that so much trespasses into my land"…..yeah, I'll be having words with them alright.
Suddenly, a knife just sunk not the bark of the tree right next to the goblins own neck, just missing him by a couple of inches.
"HIII!" the goblin squealed like a frightened pig, and as i looked down I saw a puddle spreading out from between his legs and his loincloth was stained by an obvious wet patch that that stunk heavily of piss.
"Mmm!" I made a disgusted hum as I stood up and moved a few paces away from the goblin and turned to face Misaki who threw the knife as if to silence the goblin who was pleading to me.
"Hooman!, cwazy wooman mad!…Her kill awll of my bwothers!…you tawk!…you stawp!...Her Hear You!" it screeched as it thrashed its legs around pounding on the ground as if it wanted to flee, but couldn't. The creature was pleading/begging to me into talking some sense into my subordinate as she will only listen to me.
"Misaki, what was that for? Is what this goblin is saying true?" I at least had the sense and courtesy to at least hear both sides of the conflicted.
"Do not listen to this…thing, Master... I mean, Boss-Sama. This abomination's side of the story doesn't even cover most of their wretched reasons for coming here. Trespassing into your land without permission was one crime they committed that can be forgiven depending on the reason and when you are informed, but it was not the worst thing they tried here." She said it so coldly, filled with malice and hostile contempt for the little green creature. "It's cries and pleas are of that of a mad, wounded savage animal, all of their kind are the same as him despite it's apparent intelligence in this one."
"Care to enlighten me on what they tried, Misaki?" I asked her, feeling that I needed to hear what's on her side of the story to explain the obvious hostility she was showing to the goblin.
She nodded and began her side of the story of the entire event that took place last night.
(Last night)
The moon was out in the early hours of midnight and the workers were still up and about working late. They made a pretty decent headway into the construction projects for the new hunting cabin and the complete renovation of the abandoned farm
The workers were all provided with torches to illuminate their working areas so they could continue working on through the night, despite the moonlight producing enough light to illuminate the whole area, but not by much.
Once they were nearly finished, they all decided to gather some food for tomorrow. They didn't really need to, but they all wanted to do their bit to at least repay their master's kindness and they all wanted breakfast for tomorrow as well.
They recently met with the newly recruited militia, although they were slightly intimidated by their presence at first, they at least felt safer knowing that they are around to protect them, another thing to thank their master for.
The leader of the Militia, Misaki, granted them permission to gather some food throughout the night, but only for an extra hour as she wanted them all back in the house before 1AM. She also provided them with guards to watch over the group and to patrol the village and the cabins.
They sorted it out amongst themselves as to who gets what job. The hunters were tasked in creating traps to at least capture rabbits and small critters, another group will be tasked with fishing next to the river and another group will be tasked with finding plants, fruits and berries from the local wildlife.
While they were given clear instructions to not wander off too far, some of the workers tend to forget and get too engrossed into their jobs that they sometimes wander off too far from the group.
One of which landed herself into trouble.
It was one of the summoned female workers who used to be a farmer's daughter before her farm and family butchered, her home destroyed and razed by bandits a few months ago where she lost everything, ending up with her inheritance to go bankrupt and worthless whilst the local lord refused to do anything about it and that ruined her completely as she suspected that he was the one who sent those bandits in the first place. His reasons were probably asinine and for no reason, because he may as well have admitted that he disliked them or considered their farm an eyesore on his land, or for a favour for one of their rivals to take out their main competitor.
Having nowhere to go and hitting rock bottom, she was nearly on the edge until she heard this calling.
A bright light circle surrounded her by her feet and a rune suddenly engraved itself onto her forehead, signifying that she had been chosen for a second chance in life. A chance she did not regret.
However, she still had a long way to go to at least prove herself to her merciful, kind and benevolent lord/ Master.
But something was out there watching her, eying her like a piece of meat waiting to be ravished.
A bit further away, located in the bushes were the distinct yet faint chatter of a language foreign to most humans, but a language known to be crude, savage and dark. There were whispers, cackles, and inhuman shrieks, all talking to one another. These voices belonged to a savage race of goblins belonging to a tribe located further south in the great forest closer to the mountains.
The voices were all evenly spread out in the forest with a clear view of the village and the important looking house on the hill
The voices sounded confused and a bit agitated. Unsure as to why and how a village had been quickly set up and why there were humans settling there? Another voice informed them of its findings and sharing out it's knowledge and what else it saw inside the village.
It turns out that some of the goblins had found out who the leader was, a man in bandages who they call the cloth man. The Goblin party that observed him informed them all that he looked pretty weak and sickly, although they didn't kill him even though they had every chance to. Therefore, they didn't consider him as a threat worthy of notice and just ignored him.
Not long ago, they were certain that there were no threats in the village to oppose them. The villagers themselves looked pretty harmless and weak, so they thought it would be a cinch in raiding this village and taking their women, food, and livestock for themselves.
How wrong they soon were.
One of the goblins soon caught a straggler quite far away from the party as it snuck up on her and tackled her to the ground. The woman collapsed onto the floor and as soon as she realised what tackled her, she tried to scream for help. The goblin only jumped on her and pressed a crude iron dagger pressing against her throat as it used it's other hand to make a shushing gesture against its lips.
It cackled in a sadistic delight as well as sniffing her and licking it's lips lecherously like a beast in heat. It laughed as the woman started crying as it sniffed her neck and trying to struggle but failing as the goblin overpowered the weak woman under the goblin as it brought it's hand to rip off her rag dress to ravage her chest.
Just before it could, the goblin felt a large hand grasping onto the back of its neck, firmly.
"Eh?" the goblin blinked for a brief second until…
*Crack!*
"Bleugh!" the goblin managed to cough out before his spinal cord severed from the forceful tug as he managed to catch a glimpse of the one who did it to him. To his shock… the one who snapped his neck was a beast of a man, very tall and built like a battle hardened orc. He then felt another tug and his head suddenly came straight off as it tore off with ease, spinal cord still attached to the head.
The poor young woman couldn't hold it in any longer and lost her nerve as she screamed in fright to the whole area.
The goblins were soon alerted by the scream that had also alerted the humans they were watching to their positions, thus they had to move in fast if they were to get them all before they could prepare or escape.
The goblin Shaman and scout party leader, snarled at the error that costed them the element of surprise that was no doubt squandered by one of his idiotic underlings.
"Go! Kill every last one of them! raze their homes to ashes and take their women and food for ourselves!"
The whole party of 46 goblins let out an inhuman war cry that was more like a screech than anything as well as the goblin priest/shaman gave out the orders to invade.
As soon as the first goblin burst through the treeline and into the open meadow as it was going to make a beeline straight towards the village on all fours and sprint all the way towards the settlement to slaughter those defenceless humans, the very same goblin was then suddenly launched back into the woods with great speed and crashed into the tree where the shaman goblin was standing by giving his orders with a mighty wet smack.
"What the…!?"
The shaman inspected the goblin that slammed against the tree and noticed that the skull was crushed in by a club of sorts with studs embedded into it, judging by the small indents of holes piercing into the skull.
"This village is off limits…for the likes of you." A dep threatening baritone voice was heard as a giant of a man standing at 6'5packed with muscle stepped out of the shadows through some bushes with what appeared to be a large club with metal studs embedded into it hefted onto his shoulders. His armour was mostly reinforced leather armour over a cloak like coat that reached his thighs and a hood and face cloth covering his entire head.
The thing that scared the rest of the few goblins n the clearing the most, was the way his eyes glimmered in the dark. It was like staring into the eyes of a blood thirsty predator, stalking its helpless prey.
The shaman too, while hesitant, shook himself out of his fear and yelled out to his underlings. "What you miserable sods waiting for!? It's just one cunt, gut 'im!" it screeched out to the goblins and they all started to act a bit more bravely as they all raised their custom, salvaged and crude like weapons at the stranger and they all charged at the stranger a few at a time.
Some of them leaped through the air, only to be swatted aside by a mighty swing from the stranger's mighty club (Kanabo) with ease. The powerful weapon was indeed mighty, as the strength behind the user caused an explosive effect as the bones where the club hit, shattered around his mid-riff section. His ribs and internal organs were nothing but crumbled and mushed.
Others were then picked off by arrows, crossbow bolts, and javelins that came out from the shadows and in the trees that struck down several of them, interrupting their charge. Their accuracy and power, proving very deadly as several hit them in the heads and torsos, the javelins were strong enough to rip off chunks of flesh as it manged to skim across their flesh and their skulls.
The shaman goblin was beginning to look fearful as the humans were no doubt trained soldiers. This was going to prove very difficult, but he was still pretty confident that he was certain he would win this by number superiority.
But he was then in for a nasty shock as a thin piece of rope dropped down in a noose and hooked itself around his neck, with a quick yank he was then hoisted up into the air by the branch the rope was hung upon with an unknown female armed with twin axes and sandy blonde fringe of hair being noticeable from her hood who was pulling him up towards her.
She was not wearing her face cloth, but she was undoubtedly smirking as he could barely make out the distinct bloodthirsty grinning lips curved up revealing a set of white teeth, mocking him.
"Well~…Look what I've caught here…some savage degenerate that dares to sully our master's land? Know your place, vermin. These are not your lands to raid." She sniggered.
"Vermin!? Wretched hooman! know that I am a great goblin shaman of the Great Goblin Kingdom of Gorokil. You… on our lands!" the shaman protested. "Your tiny village is no match for our numbers!" The shaman screeched and choked out his meagre threats and fury to the female warrior.
"These are not your lands anymore, they never have been." The sandy haired woman growled at the pathetic creature before her. "These lands are now owned by our benevolent and great Master, Zachary Crowshaw. Be sure to remember that name as you watch helplessly as we slaughter your followers here of your self-proclaimed kingdom." She glowered at him with a look that just oozed out malice as she wrapped a piece of rope around the shaman's body, constricting his movements and letting him hanging there as the woman then dropped down from her tree branch to land a two hit instant kill by driving both of her twin tomahawks each into the skulls of two goblins and joining in on the chaos.
The shaman watched helplessly as he came to realise that they were so badly outmatched as the skill and power of these warriors were beyond theirs. Goblins were known to be weak and cowardly individually, but their only strengths are only known when there are many of them. They mainly avoid any place that has a strong military presence or is owned by a powerful mage/noble.
So he was then wondering desperately as to why their intelligence was so off about their strength, why did they believe them to be weak and defenceless peasants and farmers when they clearly have a well-trained militia, where did the militia even come from?
The goblin watched from his tree branch, trying to give out orders or try and cry out for help, but his voice was garbled and constricted as the noose dug in tightly around his neck. Coordinating the battle seemed to already be hopeless. One after the other, they were all falling in droves.
Some goblins did manage to escape the forest, but they were then quickly pursued by other militia forces hiding in the trees, armed with longbows that killed them with such accuracy, power and greater distance that outperformed their crude and shoddy bows could ever hope to match.
A few goblins managed to slip by through the trees and quickly made a dash towards the village, hoping to at least acquire something of value or at least kill someone important.
But they too were pursued by archers and ambushed by men carrying polearms and spears. One archer shot an arrow at one goblin that was trying to make a dash towards one of the fleeing summoned girls. Once the arrow was fired, the arrow skimmed the goblin's skull but still taking off a chunk of the goblin's skull and struck a part of the fence.
Once all was lost, the morale of the goblins crumbled and they all desperately tried to flee, but they quickly found themselves encircled and were all gored by men and women wielding long spears and halberds, gutting them all mercilessly with the tips of their weapons and cleaving apart any who tried to escape with their axes and smashing them to bits with their maces, Warhammers, and clubs.
Once the last goblin was slain by a spear thrust through the chest cavity, the forest clearing grew silent and the smell of death permeated the area.
The goblin shaman stared in shock, awe, and terror as he stared at the tragic aftermath of his own underlings and the fate of all his kind had shed upon the dirt of this forest.
The rope holding him up suddenly dropped as somebody cut the rope as he collapsed into a heap.
"Kuh! The goblin coughed out as he landed with a face full of dirt and grass. As the goblin shaman coughed out the last piece of dirt in his mouth, it noticed the shadowy presence looming down on him.
Slowly turning his head around, he saw the threatening presence of all of the militia surrounding him, standing closely to him was a woman with jet black hair and the darkest pair eyes he had ever looked into. Eyes filed with such cold malice as it glared callously at him.
"You have a lot of nerve pointing your weapons at our master's land. You dare to threaten his people, to raze his home and rape his people's women… your kind are all guilty and beyond redeeming thus you deserve to be punished, harshly and brutally." She said coldly toward him as she raised her boot and slammed the heel into his face, breaking his nose.
The black haired woman took a step back and nodded to her subordinates and gave the silent order to being his torture.
Without needing any motivation, they eagerly accepted the order and swarmed the little green detestable creature and they hurt him, they hurt him in every bad way they could without killing him. Punching, kicking, slashing…all very minor compared to some of the more…brutal methods.
As I heard the entire story from her side, I didn't need to listen to any more sides as I knew the general gist of the story without being told otherwise by anyone else.
"P-Pweash…Helth…be..She…Monsta…" the little goblin spoke in barely understandable gibberish.
Misaki scowled at the green goblin as it tried to plead for it's life with her master, a fact she was disgusted by "Me?...monster?…Have you looked in a mirror, scum?"
The goblin cowered from her gaze as if threatening to lose control of his bowels this time which it came pretty close.
"Enough," I said, clearly and seriously. "I've heard what I needed to know." I said as I turned towards the goblin and made my way behind him with an unreadable expression on my face (Mostly due to the bandages) and a dull like expression reflecting off my eyes.
I held out my hand and a small Sykes like style knife of a modern 20th-century blade with a wooden handle appeared in my hand. Good thing modern 20th -21st century inspired blades can be summoned and recreated in a fantasy setting with my power as blades are very commonplace in this world.
I knelt down beside the goblin and the goblin looked at me seeing that I had my hand wrapped firmly around the noose behind his neck. "Here, let me get that for you." I said, as I cut away the noose from his neck.
Misaki just gaped in shock as she saw what appeared to be me selflessly and mercifully freeing the goblin that led a failed raid on my village intending to raze it and kidnap the women and steal all of the food we had in our storage. She couldn't comprehend as to why I would help this hateful, evil and savage creature. "M-M-Master! Why are you…why are you helping it!?" she cried out in disbelief. "It intended to destroy all and everything you worked so hard for. All Goblins are like that! They intentionally prey on the weak, they steal from the innocents and they treat anyone and anything that is weaker than them like bloody sport, raping them and throwing them away like garbage after they had their fun! It's their way of life!" she tried to plead her reason with me, but I dismissed her cries. From the sound of it, she was very passionate and held a deep hatred for these creatures.
The goblin sighed in relief as he felt the noose loosen from his neck and he could breathe a little better. "Th-Thank…You" it said with what little gratitude it could muster.
"Tell me." I muttered out, loud enough for the Goblin and Misaki to hear.
"Hm?" The Goblin looked up into my shadowy eyes that I displayed no emotion.
"Did any Goblin manage to escape? Were there any survivors among any of you?"
The goblin flinched as I asked him that "N-No…I…last…surviror…de rest…all killed.
The silence hung heavily after he said that. The goblin soon regretted looking back up to see the look in my eyes just morph into something dangerous.
"….Good"it heard me murmur under my breath.
*Shink!*
"Gughh!" it gargled and choked on its own blood as I sank my blade into this creature's unprotected neck without the noose in the way so it allowed me to have a clear shot right at his jugular vein.
Misaki's reaction was one that took her by surprise as she witnessed her Master just murder the Goblin Shaman in cold blood, and he didn't even interrogate him for information, not that he needed to… or wanted to.
"You think this is fun? To prey on the innocent like some sort of game? And you thought you could pretend to be innocent and cower in the dirt like some dumb animal when you are responsible for spilling the blood of the many innocent people you slaughtered on your hands? Don't think you could try and fool me! For what you tired to take from me, I'll take my anger and fury on all of you a hundred fold. I want you and the rest of your wretched kind to die in fear and pain, for what you tried to take from me and other innocents that have fallen victim to your kind." I whispered darkly into its ear as I watched the light fade from his eyes and it struggled less and less.
"Go, Fade away into nothingness. And once you are there, know that this doesn't stop with just your death. More of your kind will follow after you and so will others who dare to bare their fangs and point their weapons against me and my people." I growled at the now dead corpse bleeding out in my grasp as I removed the blade from its neck and flicked the blackish blood and cleaned it on the surface of the grass.
As I got up, I walked over to Misaki and stopped by her side. Her expression was still one of surprise. I knocked her out of her stupor as I grasped onto her shoulder. She looked over to me and looked into my eyes where she could see that here was a fire ignited in them, a visage of fury.
"Train the villagers… You and every other personnel must teach them with whatever knowledge you know about. Weapons, martial arts, tactics, survival, crafting, whatever needs to be taught, you cram all that knowledge into their heads.
As for future threats to this village, start patrolling the forests and any goblin you find trespassing on our lands…take them out. I'm going to need to start expanding my village more quickly than I expected and I expect you to start organising for more militia or other forces to be trained and ready for combat at any notice. Got that?" I said in a tone with dead seriousness that made her shiver.
Her lips then raised slightly into a grin and she snapped a firm salute that she gladly gave to me. "Hai! Master!"
I nodded and went on my way back to my house, plans already circulating in my mind.
As I reached my office, I slammed myself on the desk and groaned to myself.
'Well…That was fucked, in every sense of the word.' I pressed both of palms together against my face.
So I now learn that I am now under potential threat of a Goblin invasion…fucking perfect! But…they were the ones to start it, and now I'm very pissed off and I will be the one to bloody well finish it.
However, I did not expect myself to react like…well, that! I didn't know I had it in me.
I was not ready for this, but I made my declaration very clear when I stabbed that Goblin in the throat…oh Jesus…I really killed someone/something…well, not exactly…I more or less put down a rabid animal than a sentient being… but it was pretty intelligent to me as it could speak. However, Misaki informed me that only the goblin shamans/priests, champions, hobgoblins and goblin kings are intelligent enough to speak the common language, the rest of the goblins are only as intelligent as the common orcs and they're pretty much the equivalent to rabid beasts and wild animals in terms of behaviour. The only difference between them both was that orcs were aggressive war mongers and the goblins were likewise very violent, but they were more or less scavengers and raiders than actual war bands and only target most people who they believe to be weaker than they are just for simple sport.
But still…to just, callously take a life like that, and not feel anything by it?...This Gamer's mind passive power is quite scary, to just…kill without hesitation holding me back.
Well, on another note, my constructed personnel proved to be a massive boon towards my military capabilities, case in point the way they handled he situation. The downside, they were major fanatics about me as I had recently discovered.
Why they were all so zealous about me was that they see me as some sort of…God, that I created them into existence?… If you think about that for sec, you'll realise that particular thought is a very dangerous one around here, especially if I were closer to the mainland or worse, in Romalia's holy capital. The summoned personnel were tamer however, but they were still just as bad as they see me as some sort of messiah or saviour sent from the heavens.
Worse still…their behaviour around me is quite disturbing…Well…it was more the constructs than the summoned.
But if I were to be honest here…They. Were. Dangerous!
Seriously, they had slaughtered the goblins with ease, and without breaking a sweat nor did they hesitate or falter in their task. Mind you, the goblins were little more than a violent mob compared to the organised, well equipped and trained constructed militia as their foes. I have a feeling that they're going to be a really dangerous and deadly foe against any enemy I make, or myself if I'm not careful.
Their devotion, loyalty and their dependence of me is pretty much steel clad at 100% right now or more, there is nothing that can deter their loyalty to me now due to the Big Boss perk. And I've pretty much given the game system free reign to make the decisions in character creations for me, which also means personality wise, looks and abilities will also be chosen by the system. Which also explains why my constructed personnel look more like Olympic athletes, MMA fighters, and supermodels than a common or average soldier/personnel.
Anyways, after that incident, I gave several orders to my workers and informed them that they are to construct a sawmill by the river upstream, as we are going to need defensive structures as soon as possible, as well as a quarry in order for me to construct my smithy.
I also summoned 20 more militia with the same ranks as last time, 2 A ranks, 4 B ranks and 14 C ranks from privates to corporals and then sergeants. This small platoon is tasked with scouting the forest for enemy positions and also to search for resources such as iron ore, or if possible, copper ore and maybe but highly doubtful... gold ore.
They were armed with wat little iron I could spare them as I salvaged more houses with my ability that reclaimed all small pieces of metal inside them, but mostly they were arms with mostly wooden blunt melee weapons that ranged from medium weight to heavy weight, crossbows, longbows, spears, and heavy wooden round shields I armed them with to tackle the threat of the roaming goblins in the forest.
The first small platoon will stay and guard the village and to also train up my villagers to which I've summoned several more of them, 10 to be exact.
First, I got the workers to work mostly on the farms, as I've bought several sacks of wheat and cotton seeds and potatoes to grow in several fields. The fields were not very big, but it will fill up our food supply and cotton demand exponentially.
The animals will have to recover for a few days before I start gathering milk and eggs from them, the wool will have to come later as it is too mouldy to collect right now.
The hunters will get started on hunting and trap making around the forest, mostly they started small as in they made rabbit traps like cages and rope traps where the knowledge was provided to them via the command centre. With a bit of practice, they soon got the hang of crafting and trap making. Soon, they would return with an abundance of rabbit meat and pelt.
The hunters were then given some equipment, armour, and weapons for hunting and for their own protection, thus I summoned for them some hunting gear like a hunter's bow, arrows, a medieval crossbow with some bolts and even a non-lethal bolt with a blunt edge used for shooting down birds and a few sharpened spears.
Because animal pelts were an alternative source of clothing, I requested to them that they can use them as a source of warm clothing as well as for the other summoned people until I provide them with more appropriate clothing, especially with the colder weather and temperatures approaching.
Is it just me or does it feels like autumn? Now that I think about it, Familiar of Zero did start off in the spring with the familiar summoning ritual, so that means that I'm probably a couple of months behind canon. But how far is it into the civil war in Albion, down south?
Well, it doesn't really matter right now as I have bigger problems more worth my time. Where was I? Oh yeah! Fishing, is our primary source of food and one of our main sources as fishing around the river was very bountiful indeed that requires little effort, if you were to just set up several fishing lines in the river and keep watch. Hunting for game in the forests on the other hand requires a bit more skill.
I also sectioned off some of the wild fruit trees with fences and set up a zone where the tree orchards were in my farm's influence zone. That means I get a fresh supply of apples once a week, and these apples were always ripe, fresh and juicy when hand plucked… I could make a business out of this.
Houses were my secondary objective, now that I've included more citizens to my small village, but I was a bit iffy about space and resources. So I had to settle for making them 1 story dormitory/barracks-style houses that can shelter 16 people at once, but making them more…homely. It also comes with a living room, several bathrooms and restrooms and a large kitchen and storage room. The bedrooms were large and they contain several bunkbeds and the rooms are shared between gender, male on the west side of the building and the females on the east. It also contains its own water supply and perks similar to my command centre that refreshes itself, but it was very limited. The bathroom had to be single because of spacing and the kitchen and dining was very spacious.
After all of my workers and personnel set off to do their jobs and tasks, I was left alone to my own musings as I sat in my office looking over my stats screen. There was the apparent dilemma of wondering what to do with all of these points that I've now earned through an outside source connected through me.
Health points – 45/90(-50% Health)
Mana points – 1100/1100 MP
Stats:
Strength - 4
Vitality - 8
Dexterity - 15
Intelligence - 30
Wisdom - 23
Luck – 7
Available stat points 25
So as I found out, every level up I gain 5 HP and 50 MP per level, but as you can still see… my health situation is still appalling.
So for appointing which place for me to invest my points in, I decided to focus mainly on strength and vitality.
Six points into strength and two into Vitality. Since Intelligence and Wisdom were high enough, I wasn't really that fussed about them for now. Luck I decided to invest three points just for the hell of it. and that left me with 3 three points…more vitality it is then.
So after a short session of slamming down some points in my choice of stats, it went out like this.
Health points – 75/150(-50% Health)
Mana points – 1100/1100 MP
Stats:
Strength - 10
Vitality - 11
Dexterity - 15
Intelligence - 30
Wisdom - 23
Luck – 10
Available Stat points 10
There we go…I am now a little bit tankier, but still pretty crap. I decided to at least spare some points for later, so that I'm certain on what I should or want to be spending my points on.
So now I've got that out of the way, I was wondering what I should do for myself. Individually, I was weak, very weak.
I had no combat experience and the only thing I gained was Knife Mastery from me killing that goblin shaman earlier.
Naturally, I could just sit back and let my personnel do all of the work as what they gain in EXP and money, I also gain… which didn't really sit well with me. No matter how much they urge me not to take part in combat, I still want in on the action and they can't stop me. If I want to learn skills then I have to do it personally other than having skills transferred over to me, but it can still be taught to me.
*Dun!*
The notifications icon blared and I selected it to see what the fuss was about.
I blinked as I received some good news.
"Oh, an abandoned mine has been discovered…yes! And it has some left over iron ore. Get in!" I did a fist pump as I jumped off my seat and left the room in a hurry to meet with the scouting team that was returning back to base with a delivery of iron ore.
Things were coming along nicely as I also gave a mental command in constructing a smithy to some of the workers that were either available or were not doing much.
Several hours later and both the sawmill and the smithy was finally completed.
I stood outside of the smithy and poked my head in and wafting the fresh air of newness from the building into my nostrils that smelt like opening a fresh game out of the package kind of feeling. Inside you have everything you would expect from a medieval blacksmith.
Anvils, Hammers, tongs, forges, Blacksmith overalls, everything.
I also checked the new sawmill by the river, and that had everything I expected including this big ass saw connected to the water mill used to saw giant logs in half, like the one in Skyrim in the village of Riverrun.
Side ops list updated!
Mission Complete
Build a Tier 1 base of at least five structures: 5/5 completed
Reward: 300EXP - 2000GMP- 1 random ? rank Personnel card
I blinked at the last reward.
A random rank unit drop? Hmm, so it could be either good or bad? Misaki was only…What, A++ in Intel as it is her strongest suit with Combat being her second?
What the hell kind of unit will I even get?" I wondered as I accepted the rewards and I felt the warmth of experience flow through me and the cash filling my wallet/pocket dimension. The card that had the mystery somthing rank personnel was contained in a package that you can just peel open of the top. The package itself reminded me of those card packages you get when buying Pokémon cards back in the day or like opening those Rainbow six siege alpha packs, it's like those.
As much as I don't care about those similar but stupid alpha packs in games, it's kind of making me tense and a little bit excited I will admit.
So I grabbed the edge of the pack and peeled the seal off and reached inside of the package as I took out the card.
X1 S rank unit!
Merchant
Name: unknown
Combat – B
Research and Development – A
Base development – B
Support – S
Intel A+
Medical – B
Skills – Trading, Bartering, Haggling, Charm, Silver tongue, Quality Control (item Quality appraisal skill), Bargain hunter (Finding the best items under cheap prices) Black Market (Able to acquire and sell the rarest and questionable/stolen or legal/illegal goods for a fair price and undetected from authority).
I blinked a couple of times just to re-adjust to what I was seeing as I looked at the stats on this guy. An S rank merchant!? On paper, it didn't really sound all that impressive, but when I had a look at this guy in person as he stepped out of the command centre after the light dissipated, boy was I in for a bit of a pleasant surprise and I will admit…a bit of a nerdgasm.
"Afternoon, Boss!" there he was, the one and only…"The Merchant"…you know? From resident Evil 4?...that Merchant. It was kind of a bit of a let-down that he didn't refer me as "Strangeh" like he does with Leon Kennedy, but he at least he speaks it in the same gravelly voice and accent but in a more familiar and friendly sense.
"….Eh?" I was standing right in front of my command centre just gaping at this dude. "Wait, hold on!...There's no way you're that person, right?"
"Who else do you see other than a guy wearing a beat up hooded trench coat and a purple bandana and carrying a big fuck off rucksack filled with all kinds of merchandise. I'm pretty sure I'm the real deal, boss." It spoke in a slippery but harsh and rough silver tongue that he possessed.
I blinked a couple of times and just nodded, saying nothing else…just accepting it. "Alright, so finding out that my power can also summon characters from games and possibly fictional material aside. What can you do?"
The merchant only chuckled and…wait for it. "Got something that might interest ya" there it is! He displayed all his wares as he whipped open his left side of the trench coat, revealing the inside content of all sorts of merch he had on offer.
Blades, knives, firearms, bombs, ammunition, he had it all.
"Ohhh!~" I leaned forward for a closer look, browsing his wares with keen interest. The items he was selling seemed to be items that I can acquire before and during the year 1650 and even weapons that were a bit afterwards, so I was obviously interested in the firearms. I then spotted something that I was interested in, because I was stuck in the period where flintlocks were becoming a thing and it was starting to overshadow the obsolete matchlock firearms, I was bit pleased to see that there was a flint lock pistol I could potentially buy. Its date of creation was in the mid-1700s and it was a British navy sea service pistol.
"Nice! How much to unlock this?" I pointed at the pistol
"55,000GMP" he stated.
I blinked at the price and looked at the pistol in question"…I think I'll pass on that."
I then noticed that Misaki had snuck up behind me as she was also interested in what the Merchant was selling. She was staring intently at some of the Japanese Katanas, eyeing them with sparkles shimmering from her eyes. "How much for those?" she pointed at a master crafted twin set of katanas.
"550,000GMP, each" he simply spoke.
I did a spit take at the price that that, as did Misaki as she had a bit of a crestfallen look and sulked a bit as she looked at her own hand of money that she earned through slaughtering those goblins, realsising that she was nowhere near. "Jesus Christ! That much for a blade!? While the pistol is 55,000GMP!?" I objected to that.
"It's based on historical value for that blade and quality. This is a blade owned once by a famous wandering samurai back in the 1600s, well known in fact in that time. The pistol while they are…fairly common in this world, are actually pretty expensive to make and the demand is not very high at the moment."
"And you somehow acquired this blade from his corpse or something, wherever you got this from?"
He then pointed to a label that was stitched into the linen on the inside of his coat. It read out "All items on display are replicas, please ask The Merchant for more info on these products and consult with him on whether you want to buy or sell." I read out and immediately frowned.
Then a though struck me "Wait a minute, since you are aligned to me via summoning, yet you are charging me for these products that are in your possession? Am I missing something here or are you hoarding some of this stuff for yourself and exploiting all this somehow?"
"Not hidin anything from ya, boss, I'm just a simple honest tradesman. The items I own can only be purchased and acquired directly through a pocket dimension that can only be retrieved through the exchange of money and in return, you gain your desired items, simple no?" he simply explained with a shrug.
'That to me no matter how it's worded, it sounded almost like an excuse' I couldn't bring myself to disagree with his logic, but I believed him anyway "So what? You're my personal merchant that I can buy exclusively from you?" I asked with a sceptical look on my face.
"Well, that and also set up or take over businesses elsewhere. I'm also an S rank businessman too, y'know. If you have things to sell, you can bring them to me and I'll take em off your hands and take em to places where the demand is high where I can sell those goods you gave me there. The more they pay me through each goods and wares I sell, the more money you earn through third party means where the money is transferred directly into your total GMP amount." The merchant explained.
I blinked and gaped at the sound of that, this unit was undoubtedly a useful unit for economic development. "So…you can go out there and set up any businesses? Can you do that now?"
"To dangerous out there, boss…I don't really know my way out here. I can however buy anything you have as of now for a bit of money, but it's rather pointless as you'll never see them again or put to use until I sell them to another customer. Think of it like retuning games back to your local game shop and they give you a measly sum of cash that's barely scratching the surface of the price you bought the game at.
Trust me, it's more worth it if you actually sell the goods to real people where you can set the selling prices to however you like it to be, whether they be reasonable, cheap or overpriced to that one asshole you don't like. Plus you can haggle and convince real people into handing more money over that you can't with a gaming system." He further explained and I was more sold with this guy.
"Well…are there other things that I can buy off you?
"HEHEHE! Why don't ya take a look, boss?"
As soon as he said that, a menu popped up and I could see two options and the name of his buinsess.
The Merchant Express
Your No 1 merchant for weapons, armour, magic, skills, personnel, and items that you cannot get anywhere else, no matter the world you are in.
Are you?
BUYIN/ SELLIN
'Snort! The irony…" I mused to myself humorously.
I looked throughout all of the section I could buy from.
Weapons:
Armour:
Items/resources:
Food:
Vehicles:
Personnel:
Miscellaneous:
Other than maybe a few resources or weapon schematics I could buy and unlock, I was really more looking into acquiring more personnel.
So I looked into personnel to see who I could get for a good price.
After browsing through the menu for a bit, even though the selection was not much to look at, but there were some definite choices for me to pick straight away.
X1 A rank Doctor
X1 A rank Engineer
Okay, I will admit, these two did knock my money down a bit, but I will say this that it was money well spent.
The doctor is to no surprises female who stood at 5'7, with blonde swept back hair reaching down to her neck line and two bangs levelled just above her cheek bones and violet eyes. She also wore professional looking glasses that give off the mature business like woman with a white doctor's coat a tube like top and business skirt, black tights and practical boots. She will be responsible for everybody's health and tending to their sickness and their injuries, what also helps is that she is also a skilled and knowledgeable veterinarian also, which is part of the reason why I wanted her.
The Engineer had chestnut brunette with dark brown eyes who was a 5'10 male built with muscle. This man is very skilled in construction, but I wanted him because he has skills in defensive structures and also reinforcing buildings which is a special skill he has. He also has a passive skill that increases the build time of every nearby worker. So he would be a natural team leader for all of the workers and he could promote people to the engineer class. He's also a pretty skilled combat engineer too, if it came down to it, he will know how to fight back when under pressure from hostile threats.
I looked at my total GMP and sighed.
22'364GMP
I was running low on funds. From here on out, I will need to rely on raw materials instead of buying them.
No matter, I have all the personnel I need and right now…I had the option to go on to the next tier.
Would you like to upgrade to tier II?
Y/N
'Was there any doubt?' I thought to myself as I pressed yes without hesitation.
New construction options available!
Barracks
Units:
Light infantry:
Militia – 50GMP
Ranger – 120GMP
Assassin/Rogue/Thief – 300GMP
Medium infantry:
Skirmisher – 125GMP
Man at arms 200GMP
Spear infantry:
Pikeman 200
Halberdier – 300GMP
Missile Infantry:
Archers – 150GMP
Crossbow men – 175GMP
Heavy infantry:
Knight – 400 GMP (Knights are also trained in horse-riding)
Paladin – 600GMP
(Barracks Upgrades:)
Training grounds: Boosts experience and individual stats for troops training in the training grounds by 8%. Troops may also learn new physical martial arts skills or supporting skills, such as:
Boxing
Judo
Karate
Tracking
Scouting
Infiltration
Roman Fighting style
Samurai Fighting style
Viking fighting style
Spartan fighting style
Sharpshooting
Arson
Squiring
Archery range: (boosts EXP and stat points for all ranged units by 8%)
Upgrades:
Thumb rings
Parthian tactics
Volley fire
Bow and Arrow discipline
Lecture/war room (A special room used to learn/purchase/unlock new tactics and strategies on modern warfare. it also boosts the training of officers both commissioned and non-commissioned by 8%. The examples of tactics and strategies your soldiers can learn are:
Phalanx formation
Testudo formation
Wedge formation
Assault
Counter attack
Encirclement
Shock and awe
Infiltration
Sabotage
Armoury (All infantry and cavalry weapons and armour upgrades can be researched here)
Upgrades:
Fletching
Bodkin arrow
Bracers
Chain mail
Fire arrows
Plate mail
Ring mail
Samurai Equipment
Roman Equipment
Viking Equipment
Flintlock firearms
Workshop: (Workshop allows the player to research and invent technology whether they be civilian or military)
Wheelbarrow
Hand cart
Double bit axe
Bow saw
Two man saw
Horse collar
Heavy plough
Basic mining tools
Basic Farming Tools
Gunpowder
Siege workshop
Stables: A stable is where the horses are raised and trained for labour, war, scouting or even racing.
Train:
Scout Cavalry 150GMP
Light cavalry – 250GMP
Hussar– 350 GMP
Knight 500GMP
Cavalier – 600GMP
Paladin – 800GMP
Upgrades:
Better Saddles (Increases Rider's experience in riding horses and increases horse's speed by 10%)
Warhorses (Charge, heavy attack and resitance to fear is increased by 10%)
Saddlebags (Increases horse's storage/inventory capacity by 50)
Horse armour (Increases the horse's overall defense by 15%)
Horse blinders (Increases fear resistance by 8%)
Apothecary: This building produces modern medicine to heal and cure the sick. It can slo provide medical advice to anyone who needs it.
Trains:
Pharmacist
Upgrades/unlocks:
Basic hygiene products
Basic First aid kit
Penicillin/antibiotics
Basic beauty products
Herbology research
Market (Markets enable trade with travelling Traders and selling goods to potential customers for a good reasonable price, making them extremely important in developing your economy. Markets can also be used to research trade-related technologies, and to trade gold for other resources.
Units:
Merchant
Upgrades/unlocks
Cartography
Caravans
Merchant's Guild
Cooking Spices
Cooking Herbs
Eastern cuisine (Includes recipes for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Indian and many other foods from starters, mains and desserts and also including popular drinks that are made available to cook and prepare in all of the player's structures that come with kitchen
Updated European cuisine (Includes French, Belgian, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and many other country's popular cuisine)
North American cuisine (Includes Canadian and central American recipes such as Mexican and others)
South American cuisine (Includes Brazilian, Argentinian, Colombian and every south American recipes
Shrine: (The Shrine is indispensable for players who wish to found a Religion as it can provide boosts for certain skill fields and You can also set a religion based on war that can boost your troop's morale and performance. The shrine also provides an area of influence that acts as a supporting role in healing and curing the sick, the hurt and the weak people when nearby.)
Units:
Priestess
Warrior monks
Upgrades:
Herbal medicine
Fervour
Lesser Divine Heal
Atonement
Faith
Shaolin training
Lesser divine Cure
Redeem
Excorcise (Banish curses or possessions)
/
Whoa! That's a lot of information… it also appears that I unlocked more upgrades and technologies for my Tier 1 buildings. The blacksmith especially already has more technology upgrade options for me to choose from. For example, I can upgrade the blacksmith to be included with a blast furnace in order for me to develop steel ingots.
My command centre too has new upgrades that I will look into later on, such as a personal library (For my own personal research into adapting fictional or theoretical ideas into reality), upgraded kitchen, a personal workshop/garage, a home style brewery, a personal gym, a recreational area and a games room. Although, I will admit that one attachment for the command centre that really caught my eye…Kennels…Dogs?...Fuck yeah!
As I was browsing through the massive list of upgrades and new units, I noticed that I have some new upgrades/technology that I could unlock that could make a massive difference for my military prowess. The biggest technology unlock I've seen is gunpowder, what with unlocking some new firearms early on, potentially the weapons that dominated the 18th century/1700s could really make a huge difference in military campaigns whenever I decide to move down south. I was still unconfident that i could really fight toe to toe against an army of mages since muskets are still considered as an unreliable weapon when in the face of a combat mage, but I was slowly getting there.
Another building that caught my interest and that I could build was a shrine, which had me pretty puzzled and slightly suspicious on what its uses were for. Truthfully, I was not a big religious nut for obvious reasons being that religion has caused some very dark moments in history and in fiction and it still does today on present day earth. However, seeing it from an RTS gamer's point of view, it can be a pretty good asset to have depending on the situation and person, especially in Age of Empires and Civilisation.
All of these new technologies, units, structures, and upgrades were kind of making me a bit anxious and my head swirling in anticipation. Yes, I can summon the weapons and armour easily for free but at the cost of my own mana and only if they were dated before and during the year 1650, but it's not going to supply a whole army of at least a thousand, which would likely kill me from through exhaustion. Thus I needed money and resources, ASAP.
As if the lady luck herself had heard me, I had recently been brought good news I now have a functioning mine ready to go that's just outside of my borders that is rich in iron, and just a little bit further south west was a pretty wealthy gold vein and perhaps more underground, not Lannister big, but big enough to fill our coffers for a good while.
Things were looking up in my kingdom….Huh…I still haven't even given my village/kingdom/ small nation a name yet…nor have I come up with a flag, yet… gonna have to think on that later.
The next day, the goblins were at it again…fucking Goblins, man.
AN:
The upgrades and new units shown above were mainly examples. I am doing this solo and trying to come up with man upgrades, technologies and units for an RTS gamer fic is pretty tiring. Therefore, I would appreciate more suggestions to fuel the creative mind.
Secondly, I kind of regret setting my technology cap to 1650 as I probably should've at least set it a hundred years later or maybe 1850 to perhaps 1936 if pushing it a little bit. but I wanted to commit to a fic where there is some decent development, despite it being a fast-paced gamer fic.
Another request is that I want to read more tech/kingdom/nation development fanfics/online novles or perhaps manga (I doubt it). Game of thrones fanfics have a few good fics in that area and I have seen a few good ones on novel updates. What I want to know is, are there any more of these sort of fics that I haven't/ yet to read out there on a website I don't know about? if so, could you please tell me where?
That's all from me, I shall see you next time...with whatever fic I decide to update next...