Day 153:
"Sholva sent us a messenger bird?" I repeated after Shirou.
It had been half a week since the completion of our new city, the City of Ironwood. It was a humble city compared to Konoha that I knew, but it was a city that I built with my own hands with a nature-friendly look I bet no one else can have. Well, maybe except the elves, but still. My personal quarter was still within the fort, but now we added a separate meeting room.
That's where I was currently at. I was looking over the map thinking about where I should send the scouts next or to fortify our position when Shirou walked in.
He merely nodded. "He said it's for the eyes of the Chief of Ironwood Clan, so I brought it to you."
I blinked and took the parchment envelope. I gently dislodged the wax seal, pulled out the letter within, and read.
And immediately, my face paled.
"Shit!" I hissed. "Shirou, grab the small chiefs. It's an emergency!"
Shirou didn't ask me any question. He nodded and quickly went to gather them.
"Why did you call us, Chief?" Candy asked as she sat. She was the last one to join the small chief council, as it was being called.
I waved the letter that made me panic. "Sholva, our human merchant friend, sent me an urgent letter of news," I stated. "Our defense against the human Shkifield's army got us the attention of the human rulers."
Shirou perked up. "Kings?"
I nodded. "Apparently, a small contingent of royal diplomats are being sent here. But what Sholva is worried about is not that."
I pulled out the second portion of the letter.
Well, it was less of a letter and more of a poster.
"Apparently, this Shkifield is not your usual fellow. While he had an army engaging this kingdom's army, he had been convincing a southern kingdom to come to his aid. Well, it worked, and now the Duchy of Transyl-Carpathi-where we live- is at war with the Gabulria, which is thrice the size of Carpathi. The Listed of the region is officially at war and we are at the border of it."
The mood of the room dropped as the small chiefs realized what was happening. The small chiefs all seemed to agree with me.
"In his letter, Sholva asked us to come and meet the Duke of Transyl-Carpathi, the one who is supposed to be the Listed ruler of the region."
The small chiefs, sans Shirou, all looked shocked.
It was Iskan who spoke up. "Humans want to meet us?"
"They most likely want to bring our clan to their side," Shirou commented. "It also helps the Duke because we were already attacked by the Shkifield and have a reason to seek vengeance."
I nodded. "I want to meet this duke as well. I intend to ask Sholva more about this man as well as gather more information from the monsters outside of our own territory," I said. "Iskan."
"Yes, chief?"
"I need you to take over the stamina training."
Iskan looked shocked.
"Y-You sure, Chief?"
I scoffed. "Would I ask you if I didn't think you could do it? Or do you not want to do it?"
Iskan shook his head left and right just once. "No, no. I'd be glad to!" he grinned.
"You know what I always have them do, right?"
"'You better run 15 seconds more everyday at top speed. Or expect me to chase you down.'"
I nodded. "You know me well."
He just grinned right back.
Then a brilliant idea struck me.
"Actually, I'm going to need most of the troll and kobold hands." I turned to Shirou. "Shirou. I'm also going to need your help."
Shirou blinked. "Okay. What with?"
I grinned. "A weapon for myself."
"No."
"Come on! It's perfect!"
Shirou just gave me a deadpan stare. "Look, I certainly want to help you, but what you're asking is impossible!"
"We have magic! That's what it's for!"
"Even with magic, making a weapon like that will take weeks, if not months!"
I pouted. "So? It'll be a magnificent weapon!" I let out a roar of glee.
"It'll be a stupid weapon! You'll be instantly recognized."
"Dude. I'm an armored troll with enough strength to cause tremor. How much worse can my identification get worse?"
Shirou threw his hands up as he turned around to leave. "Still no," he growled. "I don't intend to make a nearly unfeasible weapon to boost your ego, Ruto."
I crossed my arms. "Fine then," I muttered. "I'll make my own!"
Shirou snapped right back at me. "What?!"
Ping!
[Quest: Weapon for the Mountain King!
Requirement:
*Find or Create a weapon with over 500 STR requirement.
Reward:
*?]
I stared at the quest alert before bursting out into laughter. I invited Shirou, still laughing, and showed him it.
He just stared at it as if it offended him and left.
Day 155:
Remember when I said I was going to need most able-bodied hands?
Well, today, I'm starting the construction for a wall. A wall that will encompass most of the plateau.
Dresa and her miners were working vigorously while the trolls lifted the cobblestones to the designated areas. I was also part of the hauling team, but with my strength, I was lifting five times what my clan's average trolls were lifting. The onis were setting mortar and cobblestone together.
The wall was to be four meters wide and ten meters high. There was also to be cylindrical wall towers every fifty meters or so. Shirou roughly calculated that the total volume of thirty-thousand cubic meters* of cobblestone. The volume of stone that needed to be carried from the mines below to the walls was staggering, but I had strength and endurance for a reason.
It was going to take us weeks, but from what Sholva told me, it would be at least a month and a half before their war reached our territory. If I took a lot of time focusing on building the wall, and I mean most of the time, I was sure that our wall could be finished at least a week before the Shkifield's next army arrived. My precious weapon would have to wait. *Sob Sob*
I placed the small boulder where our "engineers" directed me to, and I held the cobblestone in place as the other trolls place smaller rocks and the engineers mortared the space in between. Once it was dry, I turned to get more cobblestone.
I stopped, though, because Senna was blocking my way.
"Yes...?"
While I was happy with how the clan had turned out so far, I was a bit unhappy with some parts of it.
One such part of the clan was the factionalism. I learned from Shirou that it happens to all people, no matter what culture or power. It was part of nature for the "social animals."
The trolls and oni who had once stayed out of factionalism joined in. Shirou quickly took over the onis to prevent anyone else getting to it, but the trolls and imps couldn't follow me. Why? Because it would cause doubts of favoritism to start. So to prevent it in the first place I allowed Iskan to take over the trolls and imps.
Dresa also rose up as another faction leader after the number of kobolds drastically increased. Along with their importance as miners, they were now their own faction.
Senna here had the responsibility of organizing food production and recruitment, and didn't bother me with details.
So when she did come up to me, she usually had something important to say.
"Some of my children came across several tribe. All of them are seeking to speak with you."
I blinked.
"Exactly how many of them want to meet me?"
Senna seemed to be counting mentally for a second before she smiled. "Five tribes, a rough total of three hundred tribesman."
I stared. "There was that many tribes in our territory?"
"Two tribe comes from outside our territory," she replied. "They and the other three tribe seek our protection. Their tribal chiefs have told me that they have heard about the protection our clan extended to the Nomore Tribe."
"Are we considered strong? I know that bullywugs are kind of an issue but..."
Senna frowned. "It seems you still do not understand the power you possess, Chief."
I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I'm sure Candy tried to tell you," she said offhandedly. "Chief Ruto, you must realize what life was like before you came.
"Before you came, it didn't matter if you were fairykin or impkin; we were all food to the bullywugs. If you were lucky, you were captured and sold off as a slave. The few tribes that did exist kept quiet as possible and allowed very little outsiders to join in fear of growing too big to be noticed by the bullywugs. The fairykin, in particular, was vulnerable because our evolution were not capable of true offense magic until the third evolution. We were rejected by all tribes because of our 'uselessness.'
"Why do you think that we were trembling when we came up to you to ask for protection? You were strong, strong enough to chase us down and devour us. You were an unknown. We were scared of you."
I scratched the back of his head. He didn't realize that he was that scary back then. Hell, he hadn't even activated his [Intimidation] when the first fairies asked to join. "Was I scary?"
Senna looked affronted. "Scary? You were the scariest thing in the valley!" she exclaimed before quickly composing herself again. "Sorry, chief."
I waved her apology away. "No need. I'm not offended."
She paused for a second before she continued her explanation. "It was hard for us all. Then you came around. You demolished the bullywugs without mercy. You burned them down to the ground and now everyone in your territory live without fear of being devoured by those frogs. You built us a fort to keep us safe in the night. You organized us to keep us safe. You got everyone to help each other when most of us would have killed each other for the fear of our lives.
"You have no idea what you are to your clan."
When she finished, I was left a little ... stunned. Did I really do that much? I mean most of what I did was for myself, not others. But my actions did leave these impacts.
I just smiled. "Cool."
What the hell was I supposed to say?
(Chapter End)
(Omake and extra information beneath Char Info and Factions)
(Answers to reviews will be in the bottom as well at the wayyy bottom)
*30,000 cubic meters = 39,000 cubic yard roughly
Character Status by the end of Day 149:
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 67
The Gamer
Race: Mountain Troll
HP: 168.5(+312.5) (+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 710 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 625 (+312.5(SGM))
DEX: 105
AGI: 133
END: 172
INT: 122
WIS: 119
CHA: 84
Unused Points: 11
Spirit: 36
Magic: 25
Power: 34
Control: 100
Fame: ? +20
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable), Power Overwhelming, Strength is Key, Wroth, Strength of a Great Mountain (SGM)
Focus:
X
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Troll's Unarmed Mastery (max)
Unique Skills:
Berserker (LvL 1)
Clairvoyance (LvL 2)
Magic Resistance (LvL 1)
Observe (LvL 45) + Structural Analysis
Projection (LvL 28)
Reinforcement (LvL 3)
Sonar (LvL 29)
Basic Skills:
Archery (LvL 14)
Ambush (LvL 11)
Baiting (LvL 28)
Blade Mastery (LvL 18)
Charging (LvL 14)
Crafting (LvL 14) - Construction (Subskill)(LvL 10)
Fishing (LvL 9)
Intimidation (LvL 10)
Leadership (LvL 10)
Listening (LvL 16)
Mapping (LvL 4)
Negotiation (LvL 5)
Physical Durability (LvL 13)
Running (LvL 34)
Teaching (LvL 5)
Throwing (LvL 20)
Trapping (LvL 26)
Unarmed Mastery (LvL 9)
Carpathi Ironwood Clan:
# (reference) (important figures) (x = evolutionary stage)
30 Trolls (WoW) (Ruto, Iskan)(xx)
20 Onis (Shirou)(xx)
2 Faze (Candy)(xx)
19 Vashta Nerada(x)
3 Greater Fairy (Senna)(xx)
15 Kobold (D&D) (Dresa)(xx)
4 Mountain Dryad (xx)
27 imps (WoW + D&D)(x)
3 Hell Hounds (xx)
52 fairies(x)
Imprisoned:
6 humans (injured) + ?
Importan Figures!
Ironwood Clan
Ruto - Great Chieftain of the Ironwood Clan
Iskan - Troll+Imp racial leader, small chief. In charge of training new recruits
Shirou - Oni racial leader, small chief. In charge of education, production, and strategy
Candy - Faze+Vashta Nerada racial leader, small chief. In charge of scouting and intelligence
Senna - Fairykin racial leader, small chief. In charge of food and recruitment
Dresa - Kobold racial leader, small chief. In charge of mining
Faction Standings:
? Orcs -100
Carpathi Ironwood Clan +1000
Carpathi Swamp Valley Bullywug Petty Kingdom -1000
Retvoa Trade Company +53
Nomore Tribe +600 (Vassal)
Erlen Shkitfield's Host to Reclaim Southern Carpathi -1000
Personal Standings:
Andrews Maulta +65
Sholva z'Retvoa +70
Review Replies + Author's Notes:
*Well, for those of you who NEGLECTED to read the AN at the start of last chapter, I stated that chapter 19, the lost chapter, was re-uploaded thanks to kage88. He had my story downloaded, ;D Thanks again, man.
*I read a lot of my reviewers that Naruto always know of Tsunade... which is false. This is a second generation AU story, and in my first AU story, the Gamer of Konoha, Naruto dies before the chunin exam due to an invasion he had been sent to stop, which is where this story becomes its own story. So no, Naruto (now Ruto) knows nothing about Tsunade.
*I actually think that among Gamer stories, I am the only one who focuses on specializing Strength rather than speed, magic, or crafting.
*Also how does Ruto know what democracy is? Simple, Shirou. For the readers who remember, Ruto put Ruto in charge of education of the clan. That included himself when he wasn't running around. While Ruto might not implement everything he learns, he still knows a lot.
*A lot of you have been asking for the goddamn harem again. Again, I say that it'll be a while before anything close to marital status for Ruto is brought up.